


The Power of Three Journeys

by CabbitAndTheWeasel



Category: Naruto, Pokemon
Genre: Adventure, Background Character Death, Crossover, Drama, Friendship, Gen, Kage Region, Minor Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Naruto does not want to be Pokemon Champion, Naruto universe as pokemon region, Naruto/Pokemon, No Canon Pokemon characters, No they will not be catching any motherfucking legendaries in this motherfucking story, Pokemon abuse/death/experimentation elements, Pokemon/Naruto AU, Sakura is not a Coordinator, Sasuke is still butt hurt about his relationship with his brother, Soul-Searching, Subtle shipping of certain characters, Uchiha Sasuke - Freeform, Uzumaki Naruto - Freeform, rivalries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-06-09 04:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 69,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6889180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CabbitAndTheWeasel/pseuds/CabbitAndTheWeasel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura is off on a journey, she doesn't care for shiny badges, or pretty ribbons. she just needed her Budew by her side to make leaving home worth it.<br/>Naruto wasn't his father, he didn't want to be. He loves his dad and what he is, but Naruto had to find his own path.<br/>Sasuke just wants to get the acknowledgment of his father he deserves.</p><p>All three, unconnected to each other find themselves pulled together as they start off on a journey as rookie pokemon trainers and fight their way through gym battles, an evil orginization that really likes the color purple, and each other to find who they are and what they and their pokemon are capable of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Buds Before it Blooms

**Author's Note:**

> All current chapters can be found on Fanfiction.net first. I go by the same pen name, just with spaced between words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the help of my new beta reader on Fanfiction.net, I'll be editing through all my previous chapters.

**Episode One: It Buds Before it Blooms**

In the Kage Region, there are creatures of many shapes and sizes across the several aptly-named provinces. These creatures are called Pokémon. Pokémon have special abilities and types that range from Normal to Dragon to even Fairy and Psychic. Because of this, different species reside in different parts of the world. Some live in the sky and make the ozone layer their territory, others find happiness in grassy plains, and others more call the deepest parts of the ocean "home."

To humans, Pokémon are friends, partners, and even pets. People who have made the choice to go on journeys to befriend the odd monsters are called Pokémon Trainers. Trainers travel the world to explore new places and, using their Pokémon, battle for awards such as badges that help them enter the Pokémon League. The League is a grouping of the strongest trainers in the world, starting with the Elite Four and leading to the Champion. To some trainers, their goal is to battle the five league members and become the newest Champion.

Yet not all trainers opt for battles against others. Many more become coordinators and go for showing off how beautiful they believe their companions are. Coordinators travel, much like trainers, but do not battle for strength; no, they battle for skill and control over their Pokémon's abilities to the point where they can manipulate them at will into appeals that they find enticing to look at. And if your team is trained well enough, their awards would be finely crafted ribbons that, with enough, can get coordinators into the Grand Festival—a celebration dedicated to coordinators and their Pokémon who have gained enough skill to go up against some of the greatest in their field and hope to win and join that long line of memorable sparkles and shine.

Today, our adventure starts with a nervous fifteen-year-old girl named Haruno Sakura and her partner, Budew. Sakura is a pink-haired girl about to start the journey of a lifetime, but her goal isn't badges or ribbons. No, it goes far deeper than that.

The girl, too nervous to move, lay stiffly with her arms stretched out on her bed. She would leave today and would have no one to take care of her but herself and her faithful Bedew. Sakura had never left the safe confines of her hometown of Konoha before. She was always a sheltered child without any knowledge of how to take care of herself in the wilderness. However, that would all change soon enough; she would leave this place that has kept her safe and come back a strong woman who didn't need a mommy or daddy to protect her.

A sigh escaped her lips that made a light green bulb wiggle by her shoulder. The bulb looked up, and the chartreuse of Bedew's small face showed itself.

"Bedew, Bedew!" it said. The human smiled and patted her pre-evolution Pokémon on the bulb on the top of its body. Sakura's fidgety fingers relaxed the long she ran then over the smooth, rose leaf-like texture. She even felt her lips twitch as they brushed the peach fuzz at the top where the color of the bulb is a lighter hue.

"Thank you for trying to cheer me up," she said. Sitting up, the teenager grabbed her travel bag—a sturdy pack, warm white with summer-red straps and lining. She checked if all of the contents she wanted to bring were there: pajamas, swimsuit, winter clothes, sleeping bag, toiletries, food for human and Pokémon alike, a handful of standard Poké Balls, and a Pokedex. Everything was in its place; all she needed to do now was leave before her heart would wuss out.

"Bedew!" Sakura turned to her pet Pokémon. The Bud Pokémon was her very first and was given to her by her father when she was small. The two were inseparable and would even go to kindergarten together—that is, before her mother said that it was not allowed. Now that she was leaving, she knew, without even communicating, that Bedew was with her one hundred percent.

A knock at the pink-haired girl's door interrupted her thoughts of nostalgia. Ayame Haruno, her mother, walked in. Ayame is a retired coordinator famous for her three straight wins at the Grand Festival.

Sakura loves her mother, loves the performances she's seen in video's and in town. She's even performed on Sakura's birthday when she was much younger; if you had asked a five year old Sakura before she entered the academy what she wanted to be, she would have answered "Coodinator" with a puffed out chest. However, despite what Ayame might want for her, the academy and Ino Yamanaka showed the novice trainer that the glitz and glam of the stage wasn't where her talents lay.

At the Ayame's feet was Bellosom, her mom's faithful partner to this day. Bellosom was powerful despite its delicate appearance. Always wearing a serene expression, it moved with the grace of an experienced dancer. And a dancer it was, able to spin circles around her trainer and any who challenge her, before promptly putting one down with a Petal Dance that won her mother her first Grand Festival award. The people in town knew this well after a run-in with wild Pokémon that stampeded around Konoha a few years back; it was her mother's Pokémon along with others' that held them back and returned them to the wild. Even now, the grass types flowers that adorned its head were as bright and vivid as her and Ayame's younger years and her leaf skirt still held a waxy, well kept shine.

"Sakura, are you all ready to go?" the green-eyed woman asked. Sakura nodded and shrugged on the bag, heavy with her supplies, scooping up her Bedew as she stands.

"As ready as I will ever be… Will Dad be saying bye to me as well?" she asked hopefully. The teenager's small smile faltered a bit when her mother shook her head "no." Apparently, he left early in the morning on some business for Professor Sarutobi. Her father, didn't look much like the researcher he is. He's got wild pale hair she enharited from his side of the family and he's a tall, burly man. He was a smart man regardless, handpicked by Professor Sarutobi himself to be a leading researcher on a big project. The only downside, however to being an assistant to the famous specialist on Pokémon abilities, was that the man would often leave on long trips around the region.

"Don't worry, honey. He left a good-bye note before he left," her mother tried to reassure as her only daughter's expression faded from optimism to crushed disappointment.

"Really?!" Sakura beamed at the folded paper her mother handed her. The girl struggled to unfold the note while she held her small Pokémon.

"Sakura, good luck on your journey. I hope you find what you are looking for as you travel around the region and meet new friends and Pokémon. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you wanting to travel; doing so is such a great experience. I'm sure you will never regret it. Call me at any Pokécenter if you need help."

Feeling her confidence return, Sakura stretched her body, Bedew mimicked her with a cry of happiness.

"I guess it's time to leave. Good-bye, Mom. I will call you when I get to the nearest town." Hugging, the two women walked to the front door; the oldest, as she watched her daughter stride into the sunlight, whispered farewells and words of luck to the little girl that grew up before her very eyes.

She will become someone great… I just know it.

Glancing at the buildings that she passed, Sakura whispered secret good-byes to the memories that came along with them. She knew it would be a while before she would see them again.

As Ichiraku Ramen came into view, she saw a blond boy—about the same age as her, she thinks—eating a large order. A happy Vulpix sat on the counter with him. She didn't know the boy's name. But then again, she doubted she would see him again, anyway.

It wasn't until the Yamanaka Flower Shop came into view that the green-eyed girl quickened her pace. She knew all too well she wouldn't be able to hear the end of it if she was caught here of all places.

As the novice trainer rounded a corner that would hide the flower shop from her view, a body collided with her own, and both let out feminine yelps.

"Oh, I'm so sor—" Sakura began before the look peeking through pale yellow bangs of the person she ran into stopped her. The expression that could have rivaled that of a Grumpig brought a sudden pit of dread to the Budew. There, toppled over much like Sakura was the one person Sakura did not want see during her departure: Yamanaka Ino—a teenager the same age as Sakura with the personality of a self-absorbed pig.

"Ugh, damn it, watch where you're going, you creep!" Ino said, rubbing her rear end.

"Ino…" Both girls stared at each other as they got up and brushed the dust off their clothes, likewise with the Bedew that jumped onto her trainer's head.

"Ugh, Forehead-girl, what are you doing so close to my flower shop?" Ino interrogated. She flipped back her long blonde hair and scrutinized the trainer's attire: a black dress draped over her short figure, as well as a comfortable red sweater that was outlined in white; brown, almost black boots were on her feet. However, it was the travel bag and the determined looked on the rival's grass-poison Pokémon that caught her attention, and after putting two and two together, Ino let out an arrogant snort.

"No way, don't tell me crybaby Sakura is gonna be a big bad Pokémon trainer!"

Sakura felt her face flush hot with embarrassment. "T-That's right, I'm not going to be a crybaby forever, Ino." She rolled her fingers into a fist.

The blond let a mocking laugh free from her lips, shining from a fresh application of gloss.

"Hahaha, you couldn't last a week without someone to take care of you!"

"That's what you think, Ino…pig!"

As she puffed out her chest, Bedew joined in her trainer's taunting. "Bedew, Bedew!"

" I bet you still don't know how to battle," Ino challenged, a Poké Ball already in her long fingers. Sakura flinched—it's true though. Never in her life did she have the courage to battle.

As Ino stared her down, a cocky smile plastered onto her face, Sakura remained frozen where she stood. The thought of her sweet little Bedew being severely injured she just couldn't accept. That, and the fact she didn't want to hurt any Pokémon herself…

Bedew let out an empowered cry, challenging the rude trainer. Bringing her Pokémon into her arms, Sakura and Bedew stared at each other. She trusted the baby more than anyone, and she knew the bud felt the same. Yet the unfamiliar flare of confidence that sparked behind her partner was new to her; such a ferocious expression frightened the trainer to the point of chills.

It was usually such a laid-back Pokémon.

Taking a deep breath, she smiled with her eyes full of faith in her dear companion. This was the whole point to them leaving, wasn't it? She wanted to be strong, she wanted to be confident, and she wanted to find her true self.

Lifting her head to the teenager she once called her friend, she opened her mouth and let the words flow through with the confidence that was hidden in the very back of her soul.

"Ino… I challenge you to a Pokémon battle."

The opponent almost faltered at the look her ex-friend showed. Her eyes, full of the conviction she had in herself and her partner, was a shock to Ino's system. When they were younger, she remembered Sakura—always the one to get bullied, to get the pranks pulled on.

Watching the powerful gaze of Sakura have a secret conversation with Bedew, she gripped the ball with bone-crushing force. Those worried green orbs suddenly morphed with an unknown self-confidence—it more or less made her wonder what happened to the little girl she befriended out of pity.

"Fine! Whismur, go!" Ino threw the Poke Ball into the air and watched as the ball exploded from its compressed form and the glittering beam it unleashed formed the shape of her pale pink creature with soft yellow ear tips. Whismur blinked, looking at it's surroundings until it let caught site of Budew and made a curious whimper.

Sakura's eyes studied the whisper Pokémon, and she gulped. The blond trainer in front of her had more experience under her belt when it came to this, but there was no way she would back out now, not when Bedew was so pumped up.

The green bud walked onto the street that served as the ex-friends' battlefield; she would defend her trainer like her life depended on it.

Ino yelled her first command. "Whismur, use Tackle attack!" The pink creature obeyed and charged, but the bud held her ground as she took the hit.

"Bedew!" Sakura called frantically. Hearing its trainer's voice encouraged it, and she let out another cry as she pushed back against the slightly larger opponent.

"N-No way!" Both girls gasped in shock as Bedew slapped the Whismur away. The pink Pokémon flew back and landed on his rear.

"I-I never knew you were that strong, Bedew," Sakura whispered as she quickly scanned her brain for the move names her partner knew. "Tackle!" she ordered. Running up to the dazed rival, Bedew hit the bull's-eye and pushed the opponent back farther.

"Use Uproar!" Ino commanded. The pink creature sucked in air and let out a sequence of roars that hit the yellow-green Pokémon each time. Sakura clicked her tongue and watched her tiny friend's breathing, heavy and labored.

"Bedew, Absorb." Bedew seemed to smirk as she sent a glowing green light from her body that connected with Whismur.

"W-Whismur!" He flinched as he felt the energy leave his body.

"Uproar!" his trainer yelled, trying to hide her panic. Ino pushed through her growing worry it wasn't supposed to be like this! Sakura was weak, she was a scaredy-cat, and she wasn't supposed to feel so empowered! She had to beat her; she didn't like the prospect of a changed Sakura.

"Whismur, Uproar!" Whismur sucked in another breath.

"Bedew, Poison Powder!" Bedew opened up the bud on top of her head. The attacks hit, but Uproar passed through the powder and hit the defenseless creature

"Tackle." Ino grinned; she would not let Sakura beat her. Whismur did not move this time: a purple hue seemed to take over the whisper Pokémon's face as the Poison Powder took effect.

"Bedew!" the green Pokémon cried in triumph.

"Wow…" Sakura whispered. "So this is what it's like to battle…" she thought out loud as she watched Bedew stand tall and proud of her power. The novice trainer shivered as her adrenaline kicked in from all the emotions swarming her body. She called for Bedew to dodge a Tackle, though her breathing was getting heavy once more.

"Again, use Uproar," Ino says, and a powerful shockwave of vocal and musical notes blew a direct hit at the bull's-eye that's Bedew. Bedew landed at Sakura's feet.

Tears stared to gather at the edges of her eyelashes as she stared at the cuts and bruises on the baby Pokémon.

"B-Bedew…Bedew, can you get up? Please, Bedew, get up!" she pleaded.

"…dew…B-Bedew." Sakura and Ino watched in shock as the little bud Pokémon crawled back onto her feet.

H-How can it still get up? Even after so many direct hits, Ino thought in a panic. Does it really love Sakura so much that it is willing to go through hell? Ino bit her lip as her brow furrowed. A part of her wasn't surprised at the loyalty the novice trainer inspired in Budew. When they were younger, before the two drifted apart, because Ino had bigger and better things planned out for herself, than picking the pink haired girl up after she fell, she had been the first person Sakura had introduced Budew to.

Ino had been jealous up until they entered the academy and she received her own pokemon from her parents.

"Tackle, you can do it, Bedew!" her trainer said

"U-Uproar!" Ino stuttered. Bedew charged as Whismur once again readied for his attack. When it was so close, Whismur let his attack lose and hit Bedew straight on, blowing her into the air. She let out a pained cry, and her trainer let her tears flow, the adrenaline that pulsed through her now turned cold as fear took its place. As the grass-type came plummeting to the earth, Sakura grabbed her and held the tiny bud in her arms. A sob escaped her lips as she asked her Pokémon if she was ok.

Letting the shock of the battle wear off, Ino returned her Pokémon and stared at the once powerless girl she knew at some point in her adolescence. She had never expected such a fight; it almost scared her to see how much strength the trainer and her grass-type showed for never battling before

Shaking her head to free her from her shock, she spoke. "S-See, what did I tell you? You are just not cut out for being a trainer, Forehead." A tense laugh bubbled up as she felt the words leave her mouth. She had put Sakura back in her place, in that little bubble she was familiar with. The relief that she was still better at the other girl at something was like a punch to the gut.

Turning around to leave, she froze when the pink-haired trainer spoke again. "What do you know?" she said coldly. Ino flinched. "I'm going to change, Ino, just you wait."

Running past the blond and to the Pokemon Center, Sakura rushes away with her Bedew. Ino sucked in a breath and clenched her fists in confusion—why does she suddenly feel so guilty? Shaking her head, she walked into her parents' flower shop, where her mother's Vileplume greeted her. Things were about to change. She just knew it.

Ino wasn't sure how she should feel with a shifting status quo.

Running through the wide streets to the Pokemon Center, Sakura almost didn't see a figure walking out of the ally to her right, and she bumped into his shoulder. She caught a glimpse of a teenager's black hair and pale face, but not any identifiable features before she turned away and yelled a hurried apology.

While the start of the young Haruno's journey had started out rough, in the future, she will be in for quite the surprise. As her adventure continues, we will look into the start of a couple more journeys of two young men who will become important companions to our pink-haired trainer.


	2. A Rivalry in Blood

This next story is about the starting adventure of a teenage boy who wants nothing more than the acknowledgement of his father. All his life, his talents and dreams were overshadowed by the accomplishments of his older brother, a powerful Elite Four member.

By the age of 17.

Even though this overshadowed boy has become the top of his class at the Pokémon Trainer Academy in Konoha, despite his being labeled the strongest opponent and smartest strategist, his father still doesn't look his way.

However, now that this boy has reached 15 years, he is ready to take down the Pokémon League and his brother's standing in his father's eye. He made it his goal to, not only defeat his brother, but to surpass his brother.

His name is Uchiha Sasuke, and he was ready to take on the world.

A soft crow from a dark blue pokemon permeated from the edge of the soon to be trainers bed.

There was no answer from the tuft of black hair that peeked through from a thick comforter that in all likely hood, probably shielded the teenagers eyes from the majority of sunlight that filtered into the room from the window.

Again, the blue, red eyed bird pokemon cooed, hopping closer to the bottom half of its partner to poke at his thigh and crow just a tad louder. The form under the sheets reacted. Though, not at all how the Murkrow wanted as it open and closed its beak with an annoyed snap.

This time, the dark pokemon flew up to land where he perseaved the boys head to be, his claws pulling at a bit of hair before taking a deep breath and belting out a loud call into an ear. There was a muffled grunt before a pillow was flung off the side of the human's bed to hit a desk.

Murkrow flapped its wings hard enough to hover over the pillow before it hit him. It cawed in amusement and landed on top its trainer's head, where it turned to poking at him with its beak.

The sleeping head groaned, giving up his fight for oversleeping.

"I'll get up, so stop." Grunting softly, a pale-skinned young man emerged from the blankets as his Pokémon flitted to the boy's open closet. His trainer had a terrible habit of sleeping in—the Murkrow will have to remedy that somehow.

Muffled footsteps from down the hall indicated someone approaching, so Sasuke rubbed the sleep from his eyes just as a knock on the other side of his door was heard. Murkrow poked his head out from the closet, sensing someone important just waiting for an invitation to enter. Sure enough, Sasuke's mother's gentle voice came from the other side, and the crow Pokémon snorted: mothers were important, after all.

"Come in." Sasuke blinked and stared out the window, where light was streaming in. It hurt his exhaustion-blurred eyes.

Mikoto, A slender woman with long, dark hair and a pale complexion that her children inherited from her, opened the bedroom door with a maternal smile and giggled at her son's "just woke up" appearance.

"Just woke up, sweetie?" she asked with the knowing confidence of a veteran mother at the sight of the sloppy hair and unfocused eyes of her son sitting in front of her.

Sasuke shrugged before eyeing a small gift box in his mother's hands. "What do you want?" he asked as his mother joined him in sitting on the rumpled bed. An irresolute smile graced her features, so similar to Sasuke's that it's quite clear whom he inherited it from.

"Today's the day, isn't it?" she asked. A soft hand came down to pat her son's spiked bedhead.

The teenager scowled as he usually did when she treated him like a child. "You aren't going to stop me. I'm leaving, Mother, I'm not going to come back until it's finished." He pushed Mikoto's hand from his head as a dark look shadowed his eyes.

"You have nothing to prove to anyone, Sasuke… Just… I know I can't stop you, but I'm your mother, and I'm worried. The news on the strange movements from Sound haven't ceased. I don't want you getting hurt for some far-off goal," she argued softly, though from the way her son got to his feet to grab his clothes from his closet, she knew he ignored her comment.

"…but I do." Sasuke's hand reached out to wave away his Pokémon sitting on top his clothes. "This means more to me than anything. If I get hurt, then it's just one more experience on my way to the top."

Her smile was a sad one; the men in her life truly did not know how to communicate with each other. Each so stubborn, so stoic in their own right. Despite that Uchiha obstinacy, she loved all three, and the love she knew they must have for each other still burned bright. At least, in her opinion. None of them seemed to beable to put it into words is all.

"Then before you go…take this Pokémon with you." Mikoto stood behind her son until he turned around to face her. His eyebrows jumped up at the polished Poké ball in her hands, outstretched before him.

"What is this?"

"It's your going-away present, to commemorate the start of your journey. Haruno-san and I bred him with our Pokémon. He is still young, but the little darling has enough spunk to follow you around anywhere. I know he and Murkrow will keep you safe."

Sasuke frowned again at his mother's concern, but he took the Poké Ball into his hand, anyway. If it was what she wanted, he wouldn't refuse the only parent to see his value. Sasuke wouldn't like to admit it, but he knew that once he stepped out of Konoha's borders and started this journey, he would miss his mother's soft voice and caring advice the most.

He would no longer be able to simply come to her after a particularly terse exchange with his father and let her run her nails through his hair in a way that had always calmed him. Even when he was very young. Or during those times his brother would visit while not on duty and he always, always made promised to Sasuke he never kept; it would leave him hating himself for thinking finally, his brother was finally seeing his value. Only to have her find him and lift him out of his perpetual, slightly violent thoughts of shoving his elder brother off a cliff.

"I won't be gone forever," he promised her.

"Just be sure to write me, ok? Or call. With your father and brother both gone doing their own thing, I'm so lonely." Mikoto patted her youngest's head despite his displeasure, then hugged him tight. Sasuke grunted awkwardly. She giggled as he stiffened his arms against his sides—he didn't want to hug her back now that he was going to be independent. Uchiha men, so awkward when it came to physical affection in became almost endearing to her.

"Stay safe," she murmured.

"No one can hurt me." He smirked at his mother as she looked at him one last time before leaving him to his devices. Her gentle coal eyes watched him prepare to leave his room with a wry smile on her lips.

Honestly, a part of her wished her youngest wouldn't leave. But she knew forcing him to stay would do nothing but sour her prickly son even more so than his absent father and brother

Murkrow tilted its head towards the shiny ball in his trainer's hands. The dark-haired boy shoved it in the pocket of his leather jacket that was hung up in a bare spot in his closet, the majority of hanging clothes pushed to the far right and out of the way.

The hanger that held up the jacket jiggled as he stuffed the gifted pokeball into its pocket, before throwing off the shirt he slept in to get dressed. He knew, once he was finished getting ready, Mikoto would have left, and he would be alone.

Sasuke stretched as he looked out his window to the traditional Japanese garden his mother and some other neighborhood women took care of as a pair of Beautifly landed on a hydrangea bush. His face was passive as he stared out and felt nothing but nostalgia at the time he and his mother spent their days out there when he wasn't at the Pokémon Academy. But that's all their was for him, memories with his mother worth remembering. There was nothing in the garden, the halls, the rooms where he interacted with his father or brother that he felt particularly good about. In all honestly, sometimes at home it felt as if he didn't have a father or brother. A small part of Sasuke was ok with that too.

Straightening, he let the dark indigo bird perch on his shoulder as he left his room and walked down the stairs. The atmosphere was cold and lonely without his mother's precious laughter. He felt nothing for this place.

Making his way past the tea room, where guests were entertained, he set a firm glare at the shelves lined with nothing but awards and pictures initialed with those same letters he's seen time and time again: "U. I."

Badges from this region and a few from far off…somewhere named after the astrological constellations, if he remembered properly. First-place trophies from battling competitions—even a researcher recommendation letter from the mayor and lead professor of Konoha himself.

He turned away to head toward the front door.

He noted that his father never put up his own graduation certificate from the Pokémon Academy like he did his brother's when Itachi had only been ten.

The door slammed behind the slouching teenager.

Outside, the afternoon sun blazed as bright as ever in Konoha. He squinted his eyes as he tapped the heel of his boot in annoyance when it hadn't slipped off properly before heading out of his family's compound. His uncle and aunt had greeted him at one point, but the boy ignored them as he started to quicken his pace immediately as the front gates of the more well off compound in Konoha came into view that lead closely into the main street. He just couldn't run fast enough, even as his Murkrow flew on ahead with a loud and happy cry.

Sasuke took a deep breath and closed his eyes as a warm breeze shifted his bangs to the side. He was finally doing this, he was leaving! The freedom flitted in his stomach like a Butterfree fighting the air current—even if his face was completely passive.

The scenery passed by in an almost blur as the residential homes filtered out into small businesses, then into a daycare, and just past that a ramen shop with a boy and his Vulpix, past further to a flower shop with a Ledian out front.

Suddenly, a strong force bumped into him as he was about to round the corner to head to the gym he knew was located next to the Academy. He halted cold turkey and glared at the passerby who aggravatingly didn't bother to apologize.

As black stared down into the watery green eyes of a girl around his age, he scowled. She had an injured Budew clasped to her chest, as if, if she had let go, the Pokémon would cease to exist.

"I-I'm so sorry!" she shrieked before looking down at the Pokémon in her arms again and turning away to where he knew the Pokémon Center was located.

Sasuke frowned as his mind, hazy from excitement, finally cleared. He stood there a moment watching the stupid, crying girl and felt around in his own pocket for the Poké ball he had just received from his mother.

He clinched it before heading in the opposite direction of the academy to the entrance of the forest that lead outside of Konoha. Perhaps he should first see just what kind of Pokémon his mother gave to him before he dived headlong into a Pokémon battle.

All thoughts of that frantic girl were thrown out of his mind.

A boy who thinks he is all alone in a world so stubbornly against him starts a tentative journey down a path that he understands will be hard. But if he knew, if he listened to the words his mother spoke, he would know that this fight of his doesn't have to be battled without help.

Yet asking for assistance when he held his own skills high above those he thinks is below him is a near impossible task. Let us hope then…that help finds him first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did I mention the current chapters are going though editing with the help of my new beta reader? Because they are.


	3. The Protege of Indecisiveness

_"…Sand storm has been ravaging the western desert of the Wind province, Ranger Subaku Temari is on scene leading a group to evacuate all pokemon and people in the area unable to withstand the damage of both the wind and sand._

_As you can see from our Pidgeot Arial Cam, Temari and her Fearow are in the midst of scouting the scene from the air…_

_Back to you Nara._

_In other news, reports of strange activity from Oto…"_

A soft red paw had pressed the 'power' button to a small green TV as it turned to the lump currently still very much asleep in his boxers. The red head of a Vulpix sighed and shook her head as it raised the volume of the TV in hopes of waking her owner. However, there was no such luck and instead it focused on the half open bottom drawer off to the left to pull out a pair of faded jeans for when her trainer would grace the fox with his waking presence.

There was a mild groan from under the rumpled bed sheets as said trainer pushed his blindingly bright yellow and orange comforter out of his face.

"Ugh…Vulpix, turn that crap off…" a tan hand waved off in the direction of the TV. The pokemon turned her head and promptly ignored the boy as she wandered into the closet.

_"…We have news from the Kage Region Champion about ongoing investigations into what could…is here for a face to face interview, Na—"_

A resounding thump followed by a hand slamming into the television remote put an end to this morning's news as the tanned face looked up into the dark screen reflecting shaded blue eyes. He was now fully awake and decided to nurse the sore arm he landed on in his quick attack on the remote.

"That was a cold move Vulpix, did you know he would be on today?" the blond asked with playfully suspicious eyes. Vulpix poked out of the closet with a hoodie dragging from her mouth.

"Voool?" she just about purred with innocent brown eyes. The boy laughed.

"Of course you did, you always seem to know what dad is up to!" There was a gleam in the red fox's eyes as she ran up to the boy and jumped into his lap lovingly. He chuckled at her easy attempt for attention and rubbed the tuft of curled fur atop her head until it tangled. Vulpix didn't seem too happy about this and squarely smacked the boy with a paw before growling at him.

In the end the blond was forced into complaining about brushing her fur.

Meet Uzumaki Naruto, an energetic blond haired, blue eyed ruffian. He, like our other fine teenagers just starting out, is 15 years old and has reached a point in his life where the leers and whispers behind his back have become too much for this over active and passionate boy. Today he will be leaving with the Vulpix entrusted to him by his father and mother to go out and take on the pokemon world like his parent did so many years ago.

However, Naruto, for all his passion and happiness for life finds that expectations for him are far greater than they should be for someone fresh out of the pokemon trainer academy located in his hometown of Konoha. He doesn't have a particular dream. People always tell him he isn't smart like his mother, or powerful enough like his father, he has no drive to excel where his parents did.

Even through the praise and lies this young boy has always kept his head held high. But he cannot be like his parents.

For that reason, as the bouncing blond tugs on his pants and shirt and grabs his bag to bound out the door to his empty apartment he has decided to leave the suffocating adults and buildings around him and journey forth to find what it is he truly succeeds in.

Whether that is challenging the pokemon league, or saving the world from evil organizations we will see…

The first stop on his soon the be adventure Naruto decided, should be at Ichiraku Ramen. It was his favorite place to be after all, the boy thought the old man and his daughter would like to know they were losing a long time customer for the time being.

"Hey Old Man! You in today?" Naruto asked with a hungry grin as he pushed aside the red cloth above his head. Meeting his grin with annoyed, pursed lips was a young woman in her late teens.

"It's Teuchi-san to you Naruto, can't you ever stop that flippant mouth of your's?" Her voice wasn't harsh, it was clear in the teasing gleam the woman had in her eyes like an older sister would to her baby brother.

"Neh, but he is an old man Ayame-nee." Naruto shrugged as he picked up the annoyed vulpix as his feet who had to run to catch up to her irresponsible trainer. He let his pokemon get comfortable on his lap as he ordered from memory.

As the first bowl was placed in front of him Ayame eyed the bag attached to the blonds' belt. Her eyebrow raised.

"You going somewhere Naruto?"

"Mmm…" He mumbled through a slurp of noodles, like he was avoiding answering.

"Well?"

"I'm leaving."

Ayame raised her other brow.

"Wait a sec there Naruto….DAD, Naruto is talking crazy again!" The woman yelled towards the back of the shop where there was a clatter.

The large brown head of a Bibarel poked out of the doorway with a blush.

"Bii bii…" it laughed awkwardly for the noise.

"Ayame, I was in the middle of something. Now what's this about Naruto goin' crazy?" An older man with deep laugh lines asked as he wiped his weathered hands on his apron before turning to their most valued customer.

"Well…" Ayame prodded the boy. Naruto swallowed his noodles and sighed. Absently he brushed a hand along his vulpix's back. He needed the comfort.

"I'm leaving town." He shrugged.

"Oh? Off on that adventure you always bragged you would go off on?" the old owner asked, Naruto grinned.

"Yup! I think it's about time what with…well it was the right time, last year just wasn't good enough! So I'm here for one last meal before I head off." Naruto nodded.

"Haa, well it would've happened eventually, Ayame, don't give the boy so much grief. Just 'cause you couldn't do it for yourself doesn't give you the right to make other falter."

Ayame flinched and gave the two a tiny apology before placing another bowl in front of Naruto.

"So, you gonna aim to be Champion or something Naruto?" she asked with a sisterly smile as she watched the boy eat and share his left overs with the fox in his lap.

"Hm…Nah, I don't think that's what I'm looking for, but maybe I'll try a few gyms out. Who knows, maybe I'm good at it?"

Ayame let out a sigh…of course.

"So…let me get this straight, you're going out the city limits, where pokemon and crazy people run rampant….and you got no damn clue why it is you're going out there?"

"Yup, pretty much." Naruto slurped more noodles.

The brunette sighed.

"You're an idiot Naruto…"

"Yup, but an awesome one."

On his third bowl by then a shriek caught his attention just as a girl with pretty hair, pretty hair in his opinion, ran out from one of the alleyways that lead to the entrance of the city.

Pretty olive eyes flashed all around and the blond dropped his jaw. Hey chose to ignore the disgusted grunt from Ayame and his fox pokemon as broth dribble out. He recognized the girl, that was for sure. Heck, he spent half his time at the academy watching her in the few classes they shared. It was Haruno Sakura, the girl of his dreams…and she was crying.

A sense of dread entered him as he watched her crash into some stuffy looking guy with a Murkrow flying over head. He saw her pokemon in her arms and instantly knew what must have happened. She must have lost a battle to someone. His brows furrowed. Naruto didn't know Sakura personally, she had kept mostly to herself since their third year when she and some blond chick he never really liked that much broke their friendship. He knew her pretty pink hair he liked so much was natural, and that whenever her bright, gentle eyes passed over him without her knowledge his knees turned into jelly and his belly felt like any one of the butterfly pokemon he learned about was fluttering inside of him, trapped. He also knew, that Haruno Sakura didn't fight.

Naruto's brows furrowed in concern and hoped whatever happened wasn't too serious before handing over some money to the shop owner. He gave them one last grin and waved them good bye before he left to walk off into the forest beyond the city. He gulped, the dozens and dozens of old children's stories would flood back to him as he passed the sign leading into the forest. The Forest of Death.


	4. Burned

Sakura sighed as the nurse and her Miltank walked out from the back room with her spring green partner in tow.

"Budew!" The pink haired girl cried. Her arms opened wide as the walking bud wriggled from the nurse's hold so happily at the site of her friend. They met at the counter and the two healers watched sweetly as the two—mostly Sakura—hugged tightly.

"There was no lasting damage, your Budew put up quite a fight even though it lacked the stamina to last long in a battle. It was only a few minor cuts and bruises as well as a little exhaustion." The nurse informed.

"You have nothing to worry about and go back to what you were doing before the incident."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Sakura looked up at the woman with a thankful smile.

"Nothing of it dear, now off you go, I still have some patients to care for." Sakura nodded and grabbed her bag, once more leading out of the city.

Green eyes watched her Budew as it hummed along to an unknown melody. Sakura had though the worst, she cried, she had never seen her friend in such condition. Fear had tugged at her heartstrings and now that she knew the rosebud would be perfectly fine a new wave of determination washed over her.

She didn't like what Ino had done to her Pokemon. She would be sure it never happened again.

Getting into the forest that lined most of the Land of Fire's territory was easy enough. All one had to do was walk out the city gates and trees and shade covered you like a cool blanket. It was the getting-out-without-getting-lost part that she was going to have trouble with. Looking at Budew for any unspoken advice all she got was an innocent smile as the grass type bounced out of the trainers hold and into a gathering of think bushes before wandering farther in. Sakura let out a sound and followed, trusting whatever instincts her partner must have over her.

"Ah, wait! Budew!" she yelled worriedly.

"Deeww~" was her only reply.

It took her a few minutes, but the girl eventually found her Pokemon with a pale grey Pokemon as it rubbed at her green Pokemons cheek with its tail. It looked up at Sakura with mild curiosity before scurrying up to her. Sakura took an awkward step back, it was a wild pokemon after all.

"Mii~" it sang and pounced up onto the black dress she wore. Sakura yelped and fell back into another bush. Oh of course! What her luck to be attacked by the—frankly—cutest thing she's seen since her Budew! The white tipped creature padded up to sit on her chest and Sakura squeezed green eyes shut for an impending attack.

"Mii?"

There was no attack.

Sakura couldn't help but smile as a soft and fluffy something brushed against her cheek.

"Haha, hey, what are you doing?" Sakura giggled at the ticklish action to peek over at the pokemon sitting on her, its tail was rubbing her cheek. It smiled friendlily at her. She took this time to unbury her pokedex from her bag to face it in the direction of the pokemon before her. It was still rubbing her cheek with its tail.

**'Minccino: The Chinchilla Pokemon**

**These Pokemon prefer clean and tidy habitats. Minccino often greet each other by grooming one another thoroughly with their tail.'**

Sakura blinked and looked at the Minccino.

"Oh..um, nice to meet you too?" she greeted by rubbing a thumb over its cheek. The pokemon took great delight in this and cried out happily. Sakura laughed. How amazing that she was doing this.

"Could you get off me though? This is kind of uncomfortable?" she asked and the Minccino complied. Budew looked please with Sakura as she dusted herself off and got her bearings…or what she hoped where bearings because she had no idea how far she traveled off the path she was suppose to be on.

"Um…Minccino, do you think you could help me find the path again?" she asked, it agreed.

With Minccino leading the way Sakura took in the sites of the Forest of Death. Sunshine peeked through holes in the trees, casting little warm spots that she watched smaller pokemon gather to happily to sun bathe. Somewhere above her she could hear the calls of bird Pokemon, but couldn't identify which ones.

She smiled contently as the three stepped around a fallen trunk with a Purloin family.

All was well, she could see a clearing up ahead where the midday sun was showing stronger. That must be where she had lost the path. Breathing easy, the girl picked up her Budew and walked just a bit faster with the Minccino at her side.

However, her contented smile dropped when something glinted in the light. She only had a split second warning cry from her guide to fall to the ground before a blast of swirling flames drove past her. Olive eyes looked up into the Fire Spin in shock as the radiating heat made her skin break out into a sweat; she looked over to Budew who was unharmed, cradled in her thin arms.

Her guide, however, had come in contact with the fire and screeched the most painful cry she's ever heard. The light grey Minccino knocked around in the Fire Spin before the heat receeded and dropped the poor thing to the ground. Burnt fur gave a terrible smell added into the fresh forest scent around her as well as burning wood. Sakura gathered herself to her guides side only to gasp at the damage done. A painful burn scorched it's back. From the corner of her green eyes Budew was tearing up.

Green flashed darkly in anger.

Who was so careless as to let an attack like that out without so much as a warning!? Sakura frowned in anger and picked up the poor grey scrap. She realized a bit too late she never packed any burn heals.

Careless. She belittles herself. Sakura should have known better what with Budew's primary weakness being too said element.

"I'm so sorry, Minccino! I never meant for you to get hurt!" she pleaded. The grey ball whimpered in pain. Sakura's frown deepened before glancing in the direction where the Fire Spin came from. An ashy path of scorched trees and earth cleared the way.

Careless idiots!

Wild Pokemon live here! Sakura had become thoroughly angry and growled as she ran the last bit to the clearing to give said idiots a piece of her mind. Mouth open and vengeful glare purposely in place, Sakura entered the clearing in time to see a very annoyed Blond boy yelling in aggravation as a Murkrow flew some feet above a vulpix's head.

She didn't notice the black haired boy whose attention was caught when she came bursting through the singed foliage where a Fire Spin missed his Pokemon. All Sakura saw was the back of the boy shouting at a very irked Vulpix.

"HEY, you moron!" she screeched loudly. She smiled just slightly in triumph when those in the clearing flinched at the sound. The red fox pokemon was the first to turn around until its trainer. Bright blue eyes fixated on her and widened. Good, Sakura thought, be afraid.

Sakura stomped forward and glared up at the boy who stiffened with every step that brought her closer. Breath huffed and cheeks flaring red erged the blue eyed lad to take a confused and nervous step back. Sakura didn't let him take another as one hand reached out to grab him by the scruff of his hoodie. Her thin arm forced him to slouch down to his level and all pretense of her own nerves flew out the window as she stared the boy down. A gulp was heard.

"Are you the irresponsible idiot who let their Pokemon use Fire Spin in a forest full of flammable objects?" she hissed.

"Uh…." It was a squeak. Sakura huffed.

"I was right in line when that Fire Spin let loose in the forest you idiot, you could have killed me! NO! You could have killed my Pokemon, burnt her to a crisp!" Sakura let go of the startled blond's hoodie to point an accusing finger and she watched the boy's blue eyes follow to her Budew. The little bud blinked up and nodded.

Behind them a black eyebrow raised.

"It..it looks fine though?" the one she yelled at tried to convince. The pink haired girls was having none of that and trust the injured Mincinno into his field of vision. Its white tipped tail drooped.

"No, but you hurt the Pokemon that was kind enough to show be where the path was. Now, what are you going to do, because I have no burn heals. You better have one buddy, or I'll…I'll punch you!"

There was an awkward silence through the clearing. Green blazed with rage as they stared up in confused blue ones. She looked just about ready to use her own Fire Spin on his ass, before an uninterested order interrupted the staring contest.

"Murkrow, return."

The sudden interruption of her tirade had not been expected, but it wasn't welcomed either as she sent a passing glare to the boy with black hair who scowled at nothing in particular with an uninterested look.

The brooding figure was probably around the same age as her, he lifted his arm to let a pleased Murkrow land on it before taking out a pokeball to return it. Frigid black eyes glanced up at the two and Sakura gulped, her earlier anger flushed out by a look that put her own rage to shame.

"So, do you have any burn heals dobe?" he asked, Sakura looked back up to the fretting blond as if it was the first time he understood the question and dived for the bag his Vulpix was dragging up to him.

"Oh—uh sure! I should have one around….er…yeah, here we go! Got it!" He turned back to the young woman with a satisfied grin and red bottle in his hands.

"Here…Sakura!" He grinned happily. Sakura made a face as took the bottle from the now bouncing teenager…she didn't recall giving him her name.

"AH—" His eyes widened and he waved his orange clad arms as if he realized what he sounded like. "I'm not a creeper, don't look at me like that. I know you from the Academy…we had a class together."

"…Oh…um, hello then I guess." She nodded before setting down the Minccino and pat its head.

"Here we go…" the burn heal was applied and while it must have stung from the flinch the pokemon gave moments later the red scorch across its back was fading and it was able to stand.

"So good to see you back up." She pet the Minccino who smiled, wiping its fluffy tail over her knee.

"I think you should go back to your family though, they must be worried and I don't want to see you hurt again."

"Mii!"

"Deew~"

Budew leaned up against the chinchilla pokemon friendlily in good bye, then let the grey pokemon scurry back home. Standing back up to turn to the two young men she held her hand out to the one she yelled at.

"Thank you for helping Minccino, you know my name, but I can't recall yours."

"Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto, it's great to meet you Sakura." He grinned. His own tanned hands grasped hers in a sweaty sort of grip and shook it wildly. She couldn't help an amused smile.

"And that guy is…" Naruto pointed to the Murkrow trainer. "Actually I never got your name, we just sort of went at it?" he laughed. The dark haired boy rolled his eyes and turned away from them.

"I have nothing to do with this. You attacked my pokemon first."

Sakura raised a brow skeptically.

"What did I miss?" she asked and turned to the more friendly of the two who was, as of now, sticking his tongue out at the boy who had his bad turned. She resisted the urge to snort in amusement.

"Eh well, I was just minding my own business, playing with Vulpix here and a Weedle I found when this crazy evil Murkrow pops out of nowhere and slaps me. I don't even know how a bird even does that without dropping, but it happened!?" Naruto accused, rubbing a cheek.

Sakura flashed a look towards the black haired teenager who glared dubiously back. She kind of wanted to know too. Maybe she would ask later if given the chance.

"So, to defend my honor Vulpix chased after it. That's when we ran into that guy and all hell breaks loose when we started flinging attacks at each other. Then you showed up Sakura!" Naruto concluded his tale; green eyes turned the third person for clarification.

Feeling her gaze on him once more, the teenager shrugged.

"Murkrow does what he wants."

"Did you at least apologize?" Sakura asked him.

"Why?"

The answer was obvious, yet the young woman found herself thinking maybe the haughty boy didn't feel it was necessary to say sorry…even if it was his pokemon that started it. Sakura now realized she had joined into the company of a narcissist as well. She sighed. Really? Common courtesy, ever hear of that?

"You know what…this isn't my fight. So, it was nice to meet you Naruto…Stunky Head."

"…." Stunky Head stopped mid stride in his escape to turn stiffly in Sakura's innocent direction. She noticed his eye twitched.

"Yes, Stunky Head?" she asked sweetly, Naruto snorted.

"…Sasuke."

"What was that?" She held a hand up to her ear.

"My name…its Uchiha Sasuke."

"Nice to meet you Sasuke, I'm Sakura."

Sasuke grunted, Sakura smiled, and Naruto pointed and laughed.

Sunlight was dying fast by now and the forest's shadows were becoming darker. Sakura walked in silence as she looked around for somewhere to camp for the night. She would have no help from Budew who had fallen asleep in her arms twenty minutes prior.

"Hey, think we should set up some place to camp for the night?" she asked ahead where Sasuke sighed roughly.

"Why are you following me?" He asked minutely.

"We aren't," Naruto shrugged next to Sakura. "we are just going in the same direction as you…Stunky Head." The blond snickered. Sasuke scowled; apparently he didn't like being followed.

"So?" Sakura caught their attention as she brought attention to the growing darkness around them.

"Do either of you…maybe have a tent?" she asked. Both trainers seemed to shift their eyes in another direction as they thought of this. Their answer wasn't really something she hoped to hear…but at least the weather was nice.

* * *

 

Finding a clearing close to the beaten path leading deeper into the forest the three prepare a makeshift camp. A pile of sticks surrounded by rocks was Naruto's doing, Sakura cleared a few places of debris to lay sleeping bags down, and Sasuke…well, Sakura wasn't sure where the stoic boy wandered off too.

Vulpix started a fire and Sakura had some canned soup from home warming up in a travel pot by the time the dark haired teen came back into the clearing with berries in his hands.

She and Naruto looked up at him when he came and sat on one of the logs pulled up close by the fire.

"Soup?" she asks and hand him a bowl and spoon. A pale hand grabs it without thanks, and despite the furrow of her brow in annoyance for his lack of manners she turns away and gives another bowl to Naruto.

It was then the Budew she laid in her green sleeping bag stirred groggily.

"Wake up Budew, time for dinner." She beckoned the bud as she shuffled around her bag for a can of poke food.

Beside her, Naruto seemed to mimic her as he set a bowl down for the patiently waiting Vulpix and Sasuke with his Murkrow before fiddling with a minimized poke-ball attached to his belt. He stared at it for a long time before releasing it.

* * *

 

His first day training in the Forest of Death has not ended on a note he ever expected. The point being fore most and obvious is that he hadn't actually gotten anything he wanted done.

Casting an intense glower in the direction of an animally talking blonde that he put all the blame on he wondered how his day could have gone so downhill.

Thinking back, he considered it could have been because he opened his mothers' gift.

Around noon Sasuke decided to find a good clearing in the forest to check out whatever this mystery Pokemon in the pokeball his mother gave him was.

What he was met with threw him for a loop.

One loud blonde and angry pink creature later and they were following him. He began to hate today.


	5. Clashing Elements

_Earlier Today:_

With the heat of the sun blocked by the cool shade of trees above him, Sasuke thought the clearing he found himself to be in the perfect spot to reveal his mother's gift.

Onyx eyes turned upwards to wave his Murkrow back to him to met his companion. The dark indigo crow cawed once before dipping his wings down to land in the nearest tree branch. It was low enough for his trainer to reach up and tug lightly at its tail feathers.

"Ready?" Sasuke murmured to his pokemon who just cawed in approval.

Tugging the minimized sphere from his belt the boy pressed down on the button to watch it revert back into its default size.

"I hope it's not another Venomoth of mothers…" he sighed before be released the red beam of light. The jagged lines of energy converged at eye level in the air as a small shape fluttered into existence before solidifying. And for a moment…all Sasuke had the capacity to do, was stare.

Then, with a frown of shock, the pokeball from his hand dropped.

"You've got to be kidding me…" he sighed as Murkrow cawed in amusement over the floating ball of fluff hovering innocently in front of him. Its pale golden eyes blinked up at the trainer before it's leafy appendages flittered it closer to him.

"Cot!" it growled a little suspiciously.

Black eyes glowered at the creature with no want to communicate with it.

His mother had just given him a fucking Cottonee.

A flying, fluffy, ball of the most unintimidating caliber.

And it was now his.

.

.

.

.

.

"Mooooom!" He just about whined to the air. But Sasuke doesn't whine. So it was a huff of indignation as the cotton creature floated about around him with narrowed eyes, as if it needed to size him up before thinking him worthy.

Arrogant little…

It was thirty minutes into his little training day and already he was too worn out to do a thing. Sasuke sat in the shade of the tree his Murkrow had perched in while the bird now made its acquaintance with the Cottonee he wanted nothing to do with. The Cottonee seemed to not want much from him either as it didn't stray too close to the glaring teenager.

But it was his mother's gift to him, so he had to keep it. It was the principle of the situation. He would never return a gift from his mother. So for now, the brooding teenager sat quietly in the shade as he watched his pokemon flit about each other while one made teasing pecks while the other flapped a leafy wing in annoyance.

He supposed he shouldn't judge so lightly the grass type. It was his now and he knew just how thorough he was when it came to training thanks to all the lessons and hands on experience at the pokemon academy. All he had to do was find the Cottonee's strong points; they were fast pokemon by nature so it shouldn't be too hard right?

_…Right?_

* * *

 

_Present Time:_

Sasuke really hated today.

With the release of his Cottonee into public eye to feed the accursed creature he found himself in an even worse predicament than what he was already in.

Taking a spoon full of the soup the only girl in their group had given him Sasuke tried to ignore the very unsubtle snickers coming from the blond loud mouth. He currently deemed them both unworthy of even thinking their names.

Cottonee settled onto the ground next to his more accepting Murkrow as his two pokemon nibbled on the berries he had provided for them.

The pink haired one of the three had taken an instant liking to the fluff-ball and was currently patting it's head as she looked it up on her little red pokedex.

The stupid cotton ball had the audacity not to scrutinize her like it did its own trainer.

"Wow, who knew someone so mean looking could have such a sweet pokemon." She giggled while glancing up at him. He grunted an annoyed response and did not bother to grant her smile any attention.

He didn't want to be with these people, and now Cottonee was making it worse by actually being…dare he say 'cute' as it bounced along with the girls Beduw and the blond's tired Vulpix.

"Don't go too far from the fire you three!" Sak—the girl waved over to the three pokemon. The blond, finally finished with his chortles of laughter at Sasuke's expense and told her not to worry since Vulpix would alert them of any danger in the shadowy part of the forest around them.

Sasuke watched silently as she still cast a worried glance over to her own pokemon before letting the loud mouth set her back down on the logs they were using as chairs.

The three continued to eat in silence until the three pokemon came back to them to settle down for the night. Sasuke watch as the girl pecked the bud on top of Budews head and let it snuggle into her sleeping bag; the blond ruffled his Vulpix's well kept hair, he smirked to himself as he watched the fox bite his hand in anger.

Lazily, Cottonee fluttered over to him and landed on his lap without another word. Black eyes studied the ball before he gave a grunt and pat it's head gently. He may not like the cotton ball, but his mother entrusted it to him. He would keep him safe.

"I wonder where we should head to tomorrow." The tanned boy asked to no one with a yawn.

Sasuke scowled.

"What makes you think I'm staying with you? I just wanted to train before my whole afternoon went to hell."

"Come on, don't be like that Sasuke, it's late. Besides, we can all decide what we want to do tomorrow morning. Good night guys." The pink haired one murmured tiredly and set the bowls down by the circle of stone surrounding the small fire.

* * *

 

Sakura doesn't remember ever camping before. So it was safe to say she has never slept outside either and despite the unfamiliar sounds of rustling leaves and the chirps of the woken Hoohoots and Zubats the traveler found a strange comfort to the white noise and drifted easily into a comfortable sleep.

Her day rewound inside her mind with dreams; sometimes she wanted to cry out again in pain after dreaming of her defeat by Ino's hands. The loss had hurt her and hurt Budew. A little part of her regrets never paying more attention during those days where battle tutoring was required for the young students thinking of journeying the Kage Region in the future. But that was all done and past. She was here sleeping now, outside the comfort of home, even if Konoha was only a few hours walk back. It was a start.

The rest of her dreams were filled with soft gray fur and fire spins, yelling, and boys with sour black eyes.

In the morning, with the small bonfire nothing but a pile of weak cinders, Sakura was the first to stir amongst the three. Laying half lidded eyes onto her Budew that poked it's bud out of the blankets to feed off the morning sun she stretched. Hearing the pops of bone and feeling the pull of muscles she realized that maybe she hadn't slept as deeply as she thought.

Yawning, Sakura slid her legs free from the warmth of her sleeping bag and set them down onto the cool dirt to try and waken the dying fire. Picking up a nearby stick to poke at the coals and add a couple dry leaves the pink haired girl sighed as she gave up simply setting the leaves to blaze for a second before turning to ash.

She opted for a granola bar and water for breakfast.

Wrapping her red sweater back over her black dress, she shuffled around the stuff in her pack before finding one of her water bottles and breakfast bars she packed. Sakura ate in comfortable silence, chewing slowly as a way to be polite and not make too much noise to the two boys still sleeping soundly on the other side of their own logs. She flitted her tired green eyes to their sleeping arrangements. All behind three separate logs and a few feet away from each other, no one in anyone's personal space. Naruto was sprawled out, one leg out of his blanket with his shirt rolled up.

Sakura gave an unseen amused smile at the Vulpix sleeping in a curled ball at his stomach, not a hair out of place. It seemed so funny that such a boy could possibly care for such a pampered looking fox. But last night as they ate showed her the Vulpix took great care to make sure the blond ate before it and new just how to get him to shut up. It was a smart Vulpix.

The other boy she met yesterday, Sasuke, or whatever. She couldn't see much of him unless she actually lean over his perch. Even then, all she had seen was a tuft of black hair and a pale arm laying motionlessly on top of his pillow. The boy slept like a rock she mused.

Halfway through her breakfast bar Sasuke's Murkrow joined her with an oran berry stuck to its beak, waiting for her to cut it up into manageable slices like it was her job.

The indigo crow was just as self righteous as its trainer…just a lot cuter. Sakura gave a mirthful smile as she set a platter down for the pokemon and it held its spiked feathers out to her hand as if wanting affection for its attitude. Red eyes stared up from under the hat rim shaped fringe.

She snorted in her half-awake state.

"You act like you're the greatest pokemon since Arceus, you know that?" she muttered at the bird who crowed with approval for her gliding fingers.

It wasn't long after that, when a little warmth was finally seeping into the sunlight that Sasuke woke up.

Or, more like, sat up onto his designated log and promptly fell back off because the boy clearing didn't understand that 'awake' meant having your eyes open.

The low grunt he let out made Sakura snort as she looked over to him with her head in her hand.

"Need any help sleepy-head?" she asked him.

Turning his bed head slowly so that half lidded black orbs could stare at her, it took a few moments before he answered. She suspected he had to let the words process in his fuzzy mind.

"Hn."

It was a short reply. That annoyed Sakura and she scowled back at the boy. Fine then, sit on the ground then.

But Sakura was a nice girl, so when Sasuke finally found out how to sit back down on his rotting perch she chucked a spare breakfast bar his way so the oats, honey, and cranberry filled goodness could wake him up.

Sasuke, once again grunted. She would take that as a thank you.

Sakura stretched again as wakefulness started to revive her and she turned around to pick up her Budew for her own breakfast.

"You fed my Murkrow." It was a statement from the dark haired trainer's direction. Glancing up from her hand of pokefood to the satisfied Murkrow next to the empty platter, then to Sasuke, she raised a brow.

"Is that a problem?" she asked, "He kind of came at me with a berry, should I have thrown it at you instead?"

He didn't look all too thrilled by her answer, well tough, she didn't like his tone.

There was another minute of silence and Sakura went back to feeding her pokemon.

"Not…really…" it was soft and muttered in a way that he must not have wanted her to hear. She smiled to herself.

"You're welcome."

Sasuke didn't reply, he simply released his Cottonee and tossed it one of the remaining berries at his bedside.

The hush over the camp wasn't as comforting as it was when it had only been Sakura. The pinkette was the kind of girl who, while not a big morning person, at least liked to hear the sounds of others talking every now and then and even have the chance to wish whoever was near her a good morning. But the stifling quiet the silent boy awake with her imposed, was not to her liking. It made her uncomfortable and she had to catch herself four times, shifting how she sat on her log.

When the fidgeting started and Naruto was still sleeping obliviously, Sakura gave an aggravated sigh as she looked up towards her only human company with a nervous glare.

"Hey." She huffed.

He turned a pointed look at her as if not wanting to hear a word she said.

"Good morning." She finally greeted.

"You spend the last twenty minutes figuring out when to say that?" he raised a brow. Furrowing her brow at the rude comment she crossed her arms.

"You didn't seem all that sentient twenty minutes ago, you know, when you fell off a log."

Black eyebrows receded from his hairline to pull downwards in annoyance. Sakura had to smile at herself for that one.

"So…mind if I ask a few questions? I don't like not having something to do while waiting for blondie to wake up." Sakura dipped her head in Naruto's direction.

"Yes." Was all he said.

Sakura frowned, but promptly carried out anyways.

"Who gave you the Cottonee, it doesn't look like anything you would catch willingly?" She asked.

Sasuke spared a glance towards the cotton ball and didn't answer.

"Ok, fine…" she muttered.

"Any reason as to why you're traveling outside Konoha?"

At this her terrible conversation partner twitched. Tilted her head curiously she waited for him to answer.

It took awhile, like he didn't want to talk to her about it.

"Pokemon League." He simple stated. Sakura nodded, of course. What big eyed new trainer didn't want to challenge the Pokemon League?

Well, her of course.

"I see…what? You want to be the very best?"

"Best?" he raised a questioning brow.

"You know, the strongest trainer, best pokemon battler with unstoppable pokemon and the envy of your peers?" She drawled, "Maybe even catch and train them all?"

"Hn…I don't really care about the quantity. What I want is quality." He answered her. It surprised her a bit if she was being honest. But when she thought about it, Sasuke didn't really look like the type to waste his time catching Pokemon he was more than likely never to use.

"So, just enough to care for and enter into the Pokemon League then?" she asked. Sasuke nodded, then finally looked to her direction.

"You?" he asked. It took her a moment for her to realize he was asking if she was aiming for the Pokemon League.

Sakura shook her head and smiled tightly.

"I don't really care for pitting my pokemon against others like that's all they were made for." She admitted.

"Pokemon fight each other all the time in the wild, survival of the fittest isn't it?" he argued. But All the girl did was shrug.

"I don't have to fight it get closer to my Pokemon. If that's what they want to do though I'll do what I can…" Sakura wrapped her arms around Budew and it wriggled its bud happily.

"However…I don't really have a goal, I don't need to train my pokemon to take down whatever challenger is in my way, I don't need badges and trophies to prove whatever strength I earn, I just want to see new things with my Budew."

Maybe it was how she said it, but the look Sasuke gave her made her flinch. The tension grew around him and rolled off in waves. His Murkrow didn't seem all that fazed, but her Budew wriggled, more to just get farther from the upset boy than to snuggle up to her. What did she say that made him so mad? Shouldn't he be happy that there was one less trainer vying for the League challenge?

"How useless." He muttered. Sakura was shocked. Her mouth parted ever so slightly. Then, she frowned; her eye brows pulled downwards and gave her forehead a little wrinkle of confusion and offense.

Did this boy just call her plan, her whole point of leaving home useless?

This…this

Sakura felt the familiar bubble of anger from yesterday inside her.

How dare he, what, does, he think he's better than her because he has an 'important' goal or whatever to his travels?

"Screw you, Stunky-Head." Sakura bit back, albeit childishly. But Sakura officially hated Sasuke and was forever going to call him by that ridiculous nickname. This stuck-up jerk didn't deserve a name in her book.

Naruto chose that time, while green and onyx glared spitefully at each other, to wake up with a loud yawn and growling stomach.

Oblivious to the to how the two before him sat tensely in suppressed animosity, Naruto greeted the two with a happy 'good morning!' before finding something in his bag to eat.

* * *

 

"If we're all going to be sticking to the Forest of Death for a bit, why not stick together?" Naruto suggested after his breakfast of instant ramen had been swallowed down in what both Sakura and Sasuke unconsciously agreed was the most disturbing and disgusting display of full control of a person's gag reflex. Sakura, of course, liking the tanned boys company agreed almost immediately. Sakura had never traveled, and the thought of traveling alone didn't sit well with her lack of knowledge on camping. Plus, Naruto's fire pokemon could start bonfires.

Their dark haired third member of the group, however, did not agree. He stood up and actually started to pick up his bags when Naruto gave a devilish little grin and pulled out the only map among the three of them.

"Then I guess you'll just have to wander around the forest before finding the right path to the nearest town after Konoha." The blond said in a strictly condescending tone as he waved the piece of folded paper in the dark haired boys annoyed face.

Sasuke sat right back down and said the only reason he would stick around the two of them just a bit longer was so he could battle them then head right to their towns gym.

"Ah…Actually, I don't think you'll be able to do that." Sakura pointed out after some time, leaving their old camp behind. To find a place Sakura deemed safe enough to battle so as not to harm any surrounding wild pokemon or stray trainers.

Sasuke bit back a rude retort as his head whipped towards her.

"How would you know?" he spat. Sakura twitched and fiddled with the edge of her fringe like she always did when stuck in an uncomfortable position.

"Um…My mother often visits the gym leader there since he buys herbs and flowers from her." She mumbled. Sasuke stared at her pointedly, nothing of what she said helped.

"Mom stopped by the gym last week; he left a note for any potential challengers stating he was going to be gone."

The youngest Uchiha didn't like this fact very much, or maybe he just didn't like the fact someone with no interest in gym battles knew more than him.

"How long." He finally ground out after a tense silence that Naruto tried to fill with a whistled tune.

"Um…mom doesn't know, the note didn't say." She admitted. Sasuke cursed; a part of Sakura was a little happy, whatever impeded the jerk on this little power quest sent a little giggle filled with malice.

"Eh, don't worry too much Jerk," Naruto interrupted into the conversation. "Suna has a gym leader too; you can start your plot for league domination there."

Sakura turned to Naruto.

"You're not vying to enter the Pokemon League either?" she asked. Naruto shrugged.

"Dunno, not really feeling it, too much…uh…history I guess you could say, with me and the league."

For once, Sasuke actually had a little glimmer of interest in his eyes, but it was quickly over shadowed with suspicion.

"What, have you entered before?"

The blond in the lead with his back facing his two other companions tensed his shoulders ever so slightly. Sakura, however, never caught it; too busy looking around at the scenery.

"I just…Hey, there's a great place to have at it!" His swift change of topic was not lost to Sasuke, but with no interest to pry, the other two looked over to where he pointed and found a clearing walled in by a cliff face several yard tall. The trees thinned out, yet climbed up the rising earth that lead to the top of the cliff. Ivy and vines like they had seen wrapping around the trunks of trees and their branches climbed up the cliff face. Some pile up on narrow, flat surfaces that climbed up the rocky wall.

Sakura had to agree, she found this a good spot for the two to let loose. Setting Budew down to let her do her thing, Sakura found a spot at the top of a rock, warmed by the sun.

"Neh, Sakura, you want to battle the winner?" Asked Naruto. Sasuke let out a sharp exhale through his nose. She scowled at him before hearing Budew let out a cry from below her perch. Looking down the spring green rose bud blinked up at her with a little bounce. The girl blinked, a little surprised at her partner's interest. The defeat by Ino was still fresh in her mind, as was the pain she saw her dear friend endure.

"I…" She stared, she wanted to refuse, for Budew's sake and her own. But something stopped her, just a little flicker of something that Sakura couldn't describe. Looking up to the boys she gave a terse smile.

"Sure, Naruto. I'm game."

The look that flashed across Sasuke's face brought a wider smile to her face.

Naruto appeared satisfied with her answer and called up his Vulpix to stand at the ready in front of him. Sasuke, recovering from the unexpected agreement of Naruto's request of Sakura, called forth Murkrow. The two pokemon stared each other down, ready for a repeat of the day before.

Naruto was the first to command an attack, with a strong lift off into the air where Sasuke's Murkrow flew about with that air of superiority, then promptly sped towards it in a flash of trailing light.

Without needing to issue a command the Murkrow veered left and smacked into the free falling fox with a solid wing attack. Vulpix tumbled to the ground with a not too elegant flip before issuing Naruto's command of multiple bursts of fire to head towards the crow.

Murkrow weaved in and out, dodging a majority of the multiplying flame bursts. However, as each flame collided with a solid object, tinier flames bounced back into the air towards the bird pokemon and landed their hit, slowing it down until once again, Vulpix sped towards with a quick attack that landed.

"Mean Look." Sasuke smirked as Vulpix had not yet had the chance to back off her opponent. With a triumphant caw, red eyes glowed sinisterly.

Through the eyes of Vulpix, the glare had a devastating hallucinogenic effect. Vulpix froze in its spots with a growl, it couldn't escape the glare. The fox barked out an angry flame burst, but Sasuke's pokemon dodged and brought darkness upon the fearful fire type with a commanded night shade attack.

Sakura flinched away at the shocked yelp as Sasuke mercilessly ordered his Murkrow to attack Naruto's Vulpix with a series of wing attacks. Naruto was angry at being unable to get Vulpix out of the effects of the mean look and desperately held out his arms to catch his partner as the last attack sent her into the air.

Naruto called off the battle with a sharp yell.

"We get it bastard! You win, stop trying to make Vulpix bleed!" he accused. Sasuke looked unaffected by the other boy's fierce blue eyes as he sat down with vulpix, away from where they had battled to brush out the ruffled curl at the top of her head consolingly.

The red pokemon licked her trainers other hand with a cheerful bark. Naruto's attention immediately went to his pokemon as he fretted she would make him brush her for hours after such a fight. He laughed as a darker colored paw pushed on his face lovingly.

The scene, despite the cuts and bruises, was precious.

The battle hadn't lasted that long, ten minutes at most. But it was enough to see that when she stared down at a blinking Budew, her trainers expression was not nearly as curious.

"Your next."

Sakura bit the inside of her lip as she sent a not too pleased look the Uchiha's way.

"Bring out Cottonee, there's no way in hell I'm letting your type advantaged Murkrow at my Budew." She spat at him. Her opponent gave her a similarly sour look, but gave Murkrow the time to rest in it's pokeball before releasing an excited, golden eyed pokemon.

"Cot!" it shouted again and again. Budew shortly joined in with a bounce to make Sakura leave her sunny rock to join her challenger in the clearing.

"I'm not going easy on you." Sasuke smirked. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you wouldn't know how to. Let's just get this over with please." She sighed as she let Budew get into position.

Sakura watched with apprehensive eyes as the two grass types sized each other up. There was a little glimpse of confidence in the Cotonee's eyes. She didn't know what was in her own pokemon's expression.

She didn't order the first attack; she didn't know what moves this one of Sasuke's pokemon had.

"Razor Leaf." Was his first command and Cottonee did not disappoint as leafy wings waved to send what seemed like a never ending stream of spinning leaves in her pokemons direction. The leaves glinted in the sunlight.

"B-Bullet Seed!" she gasped out the first attack she could remember from her pokedex entry on her partner.

There were, oddly enough, little sparks that crossed between the colliding yellow balls Budew spat out and the polished, sharp leaves of Cottonee's.

Naruto watched with excited fascination as Budew jumped away on her tiny little legs just as a wave of leaves broke through her Bullet Seed defense.

"Leech Seed." Sakura thought quickly on her feet as a bubble of anticipation hit her. And just as ordered, from her open bulb, Budew shot a single red seed towards her opponent.

Leach Seed, she knew, could not be dodged. So the scowl on Sasuke's face pleased her as a stray leaf nicked at her grass types body, only to send shocks of red energy zapping across Cottonee's body. Budew bounced back with a cry of naive triumph before it was shot down by a wave of Razor Leaves Budew had been too distracted to prepare for.

"Budew!" Sakura gasped as the bud was thrown to her back and struggled to stand up right. Energy was zapped from Cottonee as a penalty, but Sasuke didn't seem all that effected.

"Endeavor." With that, Sasuke ended it all with a single attack. Cottonee tackled her toppled over pokemon harshly, sending her flying into the rock she had sat on during his and Naruto's battle.

Sakura gasped and Naruto cringed when the tiny bulb smacked against the solid surface and fell over in a daze. The cotton ball froze up after its attack landed with far more force than it must have expected and blink wide eyes in the direction of his fallen opponent.

From somewhere, she heard Sasuke give a mocking 'I win' before she ran up to her Budew with that well-known, thick feeling in her throat. The emotion that bubbled up earlier successfully popped by Sasuke's ruthless battling style.

Bringing herself to her knees, she gingerly picked up the dizzy Budew. Sakura swallowed the lump in her throat, but it only brought a new one.

Sakura hated fighting.

"Budew, hey, are you ok?" she croaked. Little black eyes blinked rapidly before glancing up at her with a little smile.

"…harsh…" she heard Naruto talking to Sasuke, but didn't bother to catch the rest as she stood up with Budew still tightly in her arms.

"You have a serious problem Stunky-Head." She glared up at the boy who shrugged as if her words meant nothing.

"Then don't get a pokemon if you can't take the heat."

Naruto's jaw clenched at that and Sakura just stared as if Sasuke cut her with a Scyther's blades. And before she knew it, she had marched right up to the spiky haired youth and slapped him straight across the face.

There was, as there have been many times since the three met, an edgy silence where Naruto stared, open mouthed and Sasuke's eyes actually widened a fraction.

Sakura just glared up at him with tears prickling her eyes as she repeated her words from earlier after he dismissed her simple need to travel with pokemon.

"Screw you."


	6. Bear it All

With Naruto and his awkward and raspy laugh, the boy was able to convince Sakura to calm down and focus on getting Budew to recover from the shock of her battle. Sasuke was similairly told to back off with that melevolet glare of his before he burn the forest to the ground and fix the cracks in his over inflated ego.

Sakura sat next to Naruto now as he spread out his map of their home province of Fire Country. Sasuke looked towards the yappy blonde as he caught their attention.

"Yeah so, since Konoha's gym is outta the question, the closest town is deeper into the forest near the border to Tanigakure." He mentioned as blue eyes scanned the map.

"What's it called?" Sakura asked as she leaned on him to get a better view of the map.

"Taizaku Gai, it's a good place to get you to apply for the league too, bastard." Naruto waggled his eye brows childishly at his new nickname for Sasuke. Sakura agreed that it fit him. Sasuke simply ignored the two to a certain point.

"Fine with me. How long of a trip is it from here to there?" Sasuke spoke up. Naruto furrowed his brow in thought and turned his head back down to look at the dots that indicated point a and point b.

So engrossed in his business and the others with their own thoughts did not sense the change in presence as a dark grey Starly flew out of the cover of the trees of its merry way. Big black eyes zeroed in on the crinkly paper stuck loosely in tan hands.

It blinked only once before it dived just as it made another crinkle noise as Naruto shifted.

"Staarly!" It squawked before grasping the map in orange talons and ripping it away from the owner. Naruto made a squawking noise of his own and caught the attention of his companions. Sakura stared open mouthed in astonishment as the bird pokemon flew up higher and out of Naruto's reach.

Sasuke sighed heavily before slapping a palm over his face.

"Ahh! That was the only map I had!" he screeched.

"Seriously!?" Sakura shouted as she stood up quickly in the direction the bird flew off.

"What do we do now?"

"Come on, let's chase after the stupid bird." Sasuke grunted as he set his bag on his shoulders and sent out Murkrow. It was now fully rested after its fight with Vulpix.

They didn't need much convincing as the other two followed his lead and headed, in a brisk pace, after the renegade Starly.

"Why the hell did it go after my map?" Naruto whined. Sakura huffed as she adjusted the strap of her messenger bag, she needed it shorter, closer to a purse she could secure it in an arm to stifle its movements. Her grunt was as much of an answer as it was a reaction of having to deal with the weight of the bag bouncing with each step.

"Complaining about it doesn't help, idiot." Sasuke muttered black eyes didn't bother to cast a glance towards either of his companions; they stayed focused on his indigo pokemon tracking the offending one.

Trailing after the Starly with Murkrow could only take the trio so far, eventually, the dark type lost the offenders trail and flew down to his trainer with a troubled caw. Sasuke relayed the fact that they lost its trail and watched the two stop, if only to sigh in exasperation.

"This is crazy, why didn't you get the map app of your pokedex?" Sakura questioned the blond. He shrugged then scratched the back of his head wearily.

"Well…I never thought of it until now really. The threat of a bird pokemon I have nothing to do with, swooping down to take it right out of my hands had never crossed my mind."

"It isn't like you have it on your pokedex either." Sasuke cast her a knowing look in her general direction. Feeling her face heat up in that knowing feeling of being stated the obvious, Sakura turned away with a huff.

"…So…Now what?" she crossed her arms. With no clear idea of what to do, the group settled for taking this chance to think and catch their breath.

Sakura was already gasping for breath by the time they lost the trail and rejoiced as she gulped the rest of her water from this morning.

By mid afternoon the three of them had agreed upon splitting up in the general direction the Starly flew in and search the area. Sakura pointed out they should all meet back where they were resting now when the sun started to set. Sasuke had no problem with it and was the first to set out. He was followed by Naruto, whose Vulpix scrambled after him so he didn't go too far from them. Sakura sighed and stared off into the direction she was going to have to search. She didn't really want to do this alone, but the faster they found the map, the closer they would be to Taizaku Gai and out of each other's hair.

* * *

 

A people person was the type of person to be able to flash a smile, wave, and all would be right with the world as they walked into a group of people and got them to laugh. Put in the occasional flashy outburst, or a friendly comment and even strangers would feel as if they've known the people person for all their lives.

That was the effect Naruto usually had on people. He was a social butterfree and loved to be around people and being friendly. However, the trainer found himself in a predicament where his usually cheerful personality and stupid antics was not helping the odd situation or tense atmosphere.

Sighing as he shoved away a branch to walk through the forest, he hissed in pain when the branch shot back and smacked him in the face. On the ground, Naruto's Vulpix sighed and stepped over an up rooted tree root.

Thinking to himself while searching for his map, Naruto had to admit that Sakura wasn't completely how he thought she would be. At school, she had steered clear of most of the other kids, reading intimidating thick books that had varying pictures of pokemon on their covers. He always knew Sakura was a smart girl, usually reaching in the top ten during examinations.

Sometimes, his buddies would convince him to gather his courage and finally say something to the shy, pink haired girl in his class. It never happened.

And now, looking back on yesterday, the first chance he actually had to talk to her it was because he had done something she didn't like. Guilt still nagged at him that he unknowingly almost set the three on fire. Things were fine now though. Sakura was smiling at him and they talked while all three traveled through the forest. She even made his stomach flip in that was all crushes and pretty girls do.

It just sucked you know? As soon as that Stunky-head, Sasuke mutters something under his breath it was almost always some biting remark about what a terrible trainer she was and that she shouldn't have a pokemon. It was stuff like that, that made him want to punch the black haired kid. Sakura wasn't a bad trainer, her Budew was evidence enough of that in Naruto's opinion. Besides, he's sure Sasuke wasn't all 'out-for-blood- battletastic' either when he started at the academy.

Naruto knew the Uchiha's that made a name for their selves back in Konoha. Everyone knew them, his father knew their eldest son. Uchiha Itachi, a member of the Elite Four and one of the strongest trainers in the region. Their father was the previous leader of Konoha's gym before handing it down to his apprentice, that Hatake guy. Even the local daycare center was run by an Uchiha. They were everywhere, and normally stuff like powerful people didn't bother him, the young man was use to it by know considering who raised him. But this holier-than-thou Sasuke seemed to just radiate had hit a button in Naruto he almost completely forgot existed in him. Naruto didn't like how the youngest of the Uchiha family treated Sakura, not one bit, it was rude. And he was sure his mother didn't raise him like that.

His grumbles and harrumphs carried on for quite some time in the boisterous trainer's head as he glared up into the trees in search for fluttering paper.

Vulpix yowled out at something, taking the blond out of his thoughts to focus on the red creature in front of him. Naruto blinked away his angry stare to focus on Vulpix.

"What is it?" He asked the pokemon and looked somewhere ahead of them. He couldn't see anything; then again, his Vulpix had much sharper sight than him. Vulpix ran off ahead and Naruto yelped and tumbled over some brush to keep up.

From somewhere up ahead he heard the shrill shriek of Sakura shouting his and Sasuke's name.

* * *

 

It hadn't been too long after Sakura wandered off into her designated search area that she noticed the flutter of darkly colored wings and the occasional squawk. Keeping her head up towards the sky, Sakura followed the sound of flapping through all the other sounds of the Forest of Death. Between rustling leaves, the flutter of softer wings, anonymous pokemon calls, and pattering paw steps of hidden creatures Sakura kept her ears trained sharply on the familiar beat of wings from the pokemon she was sure had their map.

The wings lead her deeper into the forest than she thought was safe, however, Sakura had been running in a relatively straight line so she was sure if she found the map it would be no trouble meeting up at their meeting spot later. As she stumbled on, deeper into thick trees and hanging vines, the sound of everything else died down to a point where the greeting cries of whatever pokemon lived in the forest were but a faint echo from somewhere behind her. Eventually, not even noticing the lack of forest-y noise, the girl trekked on until she found herself by a gathering of over grown pecha berry trees.

The crinkle of paper brought her out of her quiet thoughts. Looking up a surprised gasp escaped her; backing up a few steps to look on the surface of the tree leaves, Sakura spotted their map. It was a little ripped and dirt smudged, but it was their map.

Sakura held a hand to her chin as she tapped it in thought, the tree was high, and there weren't really any low hanging branches to climb up on. The trainer thought for another moment when she decided to call out for Naruto, he would surely help her, forget Sasuke, she really rather not deal with his biting comments about her any more than necessary for the trip out of this place. Taking a deep breath, she was about to shout out over the yowls and growls of pokemon and wind rustled leaves when a suddenly odd revelation struck her.

The forest was so silent. Sakura could hear the faint 'thump thump' of her heart beating hard against her chest from all her running to this one place. Earlier, Sakura had simply drowned out the sounds of anything other than the beating of Starly wings, but this was different. She hadn't even realized how quiet it was around her.

Looking up at the sky that was open for viewing here in the clearing, Sakura was not surprised to find it still very bright out; it should only be noon anyways. She shrugged to herself; it wouldn't be the first time she got carried away with something that by the time she actually looked at the clock or the sky she would discover it was beyond late. But not this time, so Sakura did not understand the suddenly eerie quiet of the world around her.

Until she actually heard why it was suppose to be so silent.

It wasn't very loud at first. Just low rumbles that sounded far behind her with all the other distant forest music she had left behind. But then, as her body stiffened in that way she knew something wasn't right and her eyes grew big and fearful for apparently no reason, the low rumble got louder, closer. The silence of the forest was deafening now, a threatening, feral growl at the forefront of its soft cacophony.

There were large, heavy steps from directly behind her. Maybe only a few yards.

Fear ran cold in Sakura's veins when a towering shadow engulfed her petite frame. She didn't want to turn around even as the growling was unbearably close. But she had to, she had to see what it was that was threatening her from so close.

Sakura always did have this terrible sense of luck and curiosity, the two never got along. Not with her and Ino's shattered friendship, with the erratic hours her father worked so he always forgot her birthday, and not with the two boys she found herself stuck with for the time being. Shifting her head ever so slightly, inch by inch so as not to alert whatever beast she had awakened with her invasion of their space green eyes shadowed over with a new wave of fear shading them.

Beady, black eyes fixed an angry stare down at her. Its round, brown ears perked up in alertness.

Sakura gulped loudly and threw herself out of the way just before the sharp claws of territorial Ursaring could shred her in two.

Landing on the ground with a loud thump, the next thing she did was purely instinctual as she threw her only occupied pokeball.

"Budew, Bullet Seed!" she shouted through an angered roar.

There was no questioning in her pokemons high pitched cry when it was released, just silence as a determined glare stuck to the rose buds tiny face and shot out glowing yellow pellets at the offending pokemon. Ursaring roared and flung a large paw up to its face to protect it from her attack. Budew simply lowered her aim to its gut before there were no more seeds to shoot out.

Sakura didn't even realize she shouted another command before red energy zapped away at the Ursaring as it thrashed around. Sakura watched in numb terror as the bear crouched down lower and got it's claws to connect with her pokemon.

Budew was send flying for the second time that day. That was when Sakura broke out of her daze and scream for her pokemon to be alright. Quickly, without looking at the offending enemy, Sakura ran to her grass type and plucked the stunned thing off the ground. She turned her head frantically for a place to run as Ursaring charged towards them. Once again, she dodged the blow meant for her and Budew spat out a round of seeds into her opponent's side.

Great Arceus, what was she thinking, sending out Budew against such a beast? The last attack looked like it barely bothered it. Sakura bit her lip and ran off to get some space between her and her opponent. She looked up at the trees and cursed, she could climb any of them, Ursarings were notoriously skilled climbers. Looking down at her partner, Budew gave her a settled look, the bud knew they had no choice but to fend off the pokemon until they found either Naruto or Sasuke. Sakura gulped, she didn't like this, but the first thing she did when she knew she was in danger was summon Budew.

She had to fight her way out of this and get help.

"Bullet Seed!" Sakura told the pokemon in her arms. She complied as the Ursaring was stunned for the brief moment the Leech Seed constricting it sucked away a tiny bit of energy.

Sakura took that chance to yell for help. Arceus only knows if either of the boys was close enough to hear her cries.

* * *

 

Sakura tripped heavily as another swipe from thorn sharp claws narrowly missed their target. Her foot got caught on a root from the tree she had stood behind moments ago. There was now a deep, claw shaped gash breaking up the bark.

"Absorb, now Budew!" Sakura shouted hoarsely while bright green orbs left Ursarings body. The pokemon's eyes narrowed in annoyance as the hit barely took a thing away from it. Ten minutes into the fight and Sakura was sure the Ursaring wasn't even out of breath.

Twisting away from where she sat as a sitting duck, the trainer ran back to her Budew as it greedilt gobbled up the little bit of energy it could obtain. At least her pokemon stayed in a much better condition than she did. But both of them were breathing hard and Budew's attacks were losing strength.

Sakura shouted once more in her dry voice for one of the boys to appear.

And like magic, a swirling vortex of bright red fire burst forth from the forest and trapped the surprised bear pokemon in a twister of flames.

"Naruto?!" Sakura called out in hope, she dare not smile until she saw spiky blonde hair leave the shield of trees and shadows.

"Sakura! There you are!" Naruto bounced out of the foliage with a big, relieved grin to see her in one piece. Sakura couldn't help but mimic it as her knees chose then to give out on her. Naruto let out a surprised shout as he checked his Vulpix to keep her fire spin in check. The boy ran over to her and Budew, grabbing her arms to pull her to her feet.

"Wow, Sakura! Did you seriously pick a fight with a wild Ursaring 'cause Sasuke pissed you off?" he joked with that same happy grin.

"I'd hate to see what you picked a fight with if we both got you mad."

Sakura was too tired to laugh and gave him a weary smile before retreating Budew back into her pokeball.

"So…I found the map." She changed the subject. Perking up, Sakura pointed up at the tree it lay in. The boy shook his head and muttered something.

"We can send the Bastards Murkrow to get it, let's just get you outta here."

Sakura couldn't agree more.

It took another hour for Naruto and Sakura to distract the Ursaring long enough to make a hasty escape. By that time, Vulpix was starting to breathe heavily from exhaustion as well. It was a massive pokemon, a strong one as well, far beyond either trainer's skill level; Sakura noted shamefully that she and her pokemon had been lucky enough to dodge every heavy hit from it. Neither her, nor Budew took any lasting damage a band aid and good night's rest couldn't fix.

Eventually, Sasuke met back up with them and found the two in such a state he really didn't want to have to listen to so he just asked about the map.

Sakura politely gave him the directions to direct his Murkrow for a stealthy retrieval of the map.

By tomorrow evening, the three would be on the outskirts of Taizaku Gai.


	7. Investigation in the Field

The flattened grass that made the forests natural pathway eventually came to an old and traveled dirt road. The trio had followed it since yesterday and the first sign that indicated the nearest village was passed five minutes ago.

Lifting a stray vine away from his face Sasuke scowled down at the time that was indicated on his pokedex. They wouldn't reach Taizaku Gai until another ten minutes at most. Ten minutes more was an excruciating amount of time to spend any longer with these two chatter boxes in front of him. Since their time in the deeper regions of the forest the two of them seemed to have taken to each other like Venamoths to a flame. And every comment there after that he would make was given some annoying, stupid comeback by that damn blond.

Sakura, he could at least admit, didn't act like she tried to intentionally get on his nerves. She still did though.

She couldn't hold a proper fight with that Budew of hers; at least he could beat up Naruto's Vulpix for a solid fifteen minutes before it caved. Sakura, however, just shied away every move and ran to her pokemons aid at the slightest scratch.

Sasuke clicked his tongue in aggravation at the latest training the three did at the behest of Naruto during their last break. What the hell does she think she'll ever accomplish, babying her pokemon? He didn't approve, but at least she cooked stew when the blond wasn't trying to share his boxed ramen.

Looking back after the girl made a squeaking noise he found her toppled over in the dirt. He raised a questioning brow and turned to the other boy for answers, he wasn't much help. Naruto held back a joyful laughter as he helped the girl back to her feet, a raised tree root looked to be the culprit. He rolled his eyes.

"Hurry up, we're almost there." He muttered before moving forward.

That was another thing with her. She was slow and clumsy, she got tired fast and she had to look at everything like it was the first time she's seen it.

And then Naruto…Naruto just failed at everything he was supposed to do. He's asked to watch the stew so it doesn't boil over while Sakura went and did…girl stuff in the forest and he finds himself smacking the blond when he has to clean hot stew out of his hair.

Dark eyes roved the widening path for any sign of the village they were headed when, in the distance, a tall figure was standing under a tree. Sasuke couldn't tell from here who or what it was, but if it was a trainer…

Sasuke smirked to himself and felt for the miniaturized ball containing his Murkrow.

"Hey, who's that, over there?" Sakura asked from behind him.

"Dunno." He muttered as they got closer. Unconsciously, Naruto and Sakura caught up with his speed and zeroed in on the tall figure of a man, he seemed to be talking to a device and had yet to notice the three teenagers. Yet, as their footsteps got closer they watched a messy bed of light colored hair shift as the head turned in their general direction. None of them could make out the face yet, and Sasuke caught the stranger hanging up what he knew had to be a XTransiver. He and his traveling companions were but a few yards away when he noticed he still couldn't make out the man's face under the shade of the tree.

"Yo, you three kids heading into Taizaku Gai?" The man spoke in a deep, tired sort of voice. Sasuke saw Sakura twitch at his sudden speech.

"Yeah, what of it old man?" Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Ahh…well, I think you three should probably head back to where ever you came. Taizaku Gai isn't the safest place to be right now."

"Safe? Has something happened in the village? Are the locals ok?" Sakura asked in that same, high pitch Sasuke noticed it got when she was nervous. The man scratched the back of his head with a sigh, like it would be a bother to really explain.

"Well, you could say some ruffians have taken to locating there—"

"WHAT!" Naruto gasped loudly. "Then what the heck are we doing out here, we should go kick some bad guy ass!"

"Wait—"

"What?"

"Naruto, we should let the police handle it." Sakura's firm voice broke through both Sasuke's and the strangers questions. The boy in question look crestfallen as Sakura pat his back and looked up to the stranger with nervous green eyes.

"The police are doing something about it right? Are you with the police?"

"You could say that…"

"Not exactly a straight answer though." Sasuke butted in with narrowed eyes. Tanigakure was the nearest city after Taizaku, but that was at least a few weeks of traveling on foot. And if these two decided to follow Sasuke would be stuck even longer with them.

"I didn't realize I had to answer to a bunch of kids." The stranger pointed out with a crinkle in his lone eye, the other was covered by a shockingly light hair color.

"Hey…maybe we shouldn't fight, he did warn us about the activity going on in the village. Maybe we should just camp out tonight and move on to the next closest one." Sakura tugged lightly on Sasuke's jacket.

But Sasuke didn't want to. He glared down at the pink haired trainer and shoved her hand away from his arm.

"I don't care what's going on in Taizaku Gai as long as I can get rid of the two of you." The dark trainer shoved passed the taller stranger with a huff.

"As long as I don't get bothered they can do whatever the hell they want. And now that we're here, we can separate."

"Charming friend you got there." The stranger with the shocking hair hummed; Sasuke could feel their stares as they watched him separate from the three, but he didn't look back. He didn't want to. Once he was far enough from the two who had plagued him with a lack of silence only while eating or sleeping did he breath out a sigh of relief and enter a tiny little village.

* * *

 

Sakura pursed her lips at Sasuke's retreating back and sighed, letting her hand drop back to her side. She shouldn't be too surprised by now at the boys hostility, he practically exuded it.

"Charming, ha, that's a good one old man. That bastard is as charming as a raging Miltank." Naruto muttered with a shrug.

"What do you think we should do? We did only agree to stay together until Taizaku Gai, should we just go on to the next town?" She turned to Naruto who closed his eyes in thought.

"Meh, I dunno, I mean, I'm not really afraid of whatever bad stuff is happening here, and I kinda don't like the thought of leaving without helping. What if pokemon are in danger or something?" He argued. Sakura furrowed her brow and looked up to the stranger.

"Are pokemon involved in this trouble you warned us about?" she questioned. The man scratched the back of his head.

"Eh heh…funny you should mention that actually…" He looked down at the two with a tired look and sighed. The look she gave the man sent a drop of sweat down his forehead.

"Look, I'm not even authorized to tell you, so why don't I just escort you to the Pokemon Center so I know you two don't run into any trouble." The man turned on his heel and started walking down the road towards town.

"If you're a police officer, then why are you handling pokemon related crimes?" Naruto, in a rare moment of cleverness piped up. Sakura looked to Naruto and nodded at the sense he made. Regular police didn't handle crimes relating to pokemon, that was the Leagues job.

"Uhh…"

Sakura and Naruto looked into the stranger's dark eye, it crinkled a little before he sighed and brought his hands up in defeat.

"Ok, ok, you caught me. I'm from the Pokemon league. I was sent here to investigate some recent reports of illegal high stakes battling." He admitted.

"High stakes?" Sakura frowned. "You mean like…gambling?"

"Yup."

"What? Gambling and pokemon?" Naruto looked back between the two in confusion. "Is that a thing?"

Sakura shook her head and gave a little smile. Naruto didn't seem like the type to pay attention in class. She could only imagine what the academy might have been like if she had been friends with a boy like him.

"In history you dork. Back at the academy we learned that during the Third Pokemon War when the economy crashed for many of the provinces. Afterwards, the Pokemon League deemed battling for rewards or to take what you need from other people became legal. At the end of the war it was outlawed." Sakura explained.

"Smart girl." The tall man nodded. "Seems whoever is orchestrating this whole charade is after more than just some extra cash though; many trainers who are taking part in these illegal battles lost their pokemon to the ones to insinuate the challenge."

There was a shocked silence for the two trainers. Sakura moved her palm closer to the pokeball holding her Budew inside. Naruto's lips were pale as he pursed then together, his eyes held a pensive look.

"H-have you gotten any sort of lead on these bad guys? I don't want to lose my pokemon!" Sakura looked up at the man. He stopped short in his long strides and put a heavy hand on her pink head.

"Hey, I'm an experienced trainer and a lackey of the Pokemon League, you'll be fine as long as you stick close to me."

"Hey, who are you though; you never gave us your name. You could be one of those bad guys for all we know." Naruto grumbled. Sakura's eyes widened a bit and she stepped closer to the blond.

"Way to ruin my mystique~ But don't worry, I really am with the League. Hatake Kakashi at your beck and call and all that." He introduced.

* * *

 

Taizaku Gai was a small town where the locals knew each other and the main profit were the berry exports into Konoha. The three walking into the village and passed by a bench with a trainer petting a yawning Ponyta. Sakura focused her attention to a scrap on the Ponyta's hind leg; the trainer glanced up and gave her an apprehensive stare before focusing back on their pokemon. She kept an eye on them once more before turning back and focusing once more on the road. But a nagging feeling made her steps heavy and stiff. She looked up again, turned her head left and right, eyes were on her.

Sakura opened her mouth nervously and looked to Kakashi whose eyes her narrowed and concentrated to the street ahead of them.

"Kakashi…" She murmured, catching Naruto's attention. Kakashi glanced down at the two with that same eye crinkle.

"Ah, so you can feel it too?" he asked.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

"It what several trainers reported feeling as soon as they entered the village." The man informed. "My advice, just don't go and accept any offers to battle."

"So wait, people or whatever is spying on us, sizing us up or something. Is that what you're saying?" Naruto raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Yup, I think they're sizing us up." Kakashi shrugged. "Ah, here we are!"

Looking forward, the trios were in front of the Pokemon Center. It's iconic bright red roof a bright becon in this forest village. Sakura sighed in relief, hoping once they were inside that creeping feeling down her spine would stop. Looking over to Naruto who grinned her way they turned to Kakashi.

"Hey, why don't you have lunch with us Kakashi? I kinda don't like this whole idea on betting on pokemon like this. I still want to help you." Naruto pointed a thumb towards the doors. His wild grin never faltered.

"Hmm, I don't think that's a good idea Naruto, I am a professional after all."

"So you have an idea of who you're after then" Sakura asked politely.

"Uhh…not exactly."

The teenagers made a face at the adult before grabbing his wrists and dragging him inside. Sakura, for all her uneasiness, didn't think it was right to just leave it at that either. Kakashi looked like he needed help tracking down the ring leaders of this illegal battling thing and Naruto didn't look like he would let something like this slide so easily either. After retrieving a room key from the nurse at the front desk and dumping their packs inside their room Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi headed for the cafeteria to grab a bite and insist the investigator that he needed their help.

"I really don't think it would be wise on my part to let a bunch of kids help me do my job." Kakashi spoke as the three sat down. Naruto gave him a weird look as the man refused to lower the mask hiding most of his face. Sakura was a little more discreet with that minor fault though and busied herself with taking a sip of tea.

"Hey, let's get one thing straight." Naruto smacked his hand on the table with a huff. "I'm fifteen, not a kid!"

Kakashi, however, just raised a dubious eyebrow. Sakura sighed.

"I think what he means is…it doesn't matter." Sakura murmured through her cup, they turned to her and she gulped.

"I don't think any of what you told us sits well with me either. And well…what if…"

"If?" The light haired man urged her.

"Well…what if Naruto and I maybe—" She started.

"OH! I get it Sakura! What if me and Sakura took part in these battles and drew out the mastermind?" Naruto cheered.

"Sakura, you're the smartest person I know, that's a great idea!"

"That's a dangerous idea." Their current companion countered. "You two don't look all that experienced in anything, I bet you just left home recently. I can't put greenhorn trainers in a situation where they couldn't take care of themselves."

Sakura lowered her head thoughtfully. She had figured that much, she didn't like battling in the first place. But what was going on now was against the law and a lot of people or pokemon could get hurt. Naruto didn't seem like the type to just let something like this pass either, especially with it going on right under his nose.

"Hey, it's a good plan, Old Man. What other ideas have you got to end whatever is going on. We can handle ourselves just fine. You're talking to the girl who defended herself from a wild Ursaring and I'm just awesome!"

The investigator turned to the girl with a skeptical look and she flushed humbly.

"More like I survived, but really, you'll have our back, right Kakashi? I'm sure you'll help us if things go wrong." She pointed out. There was a pause for Kakashi to take a moment to think before he took another long look and the grinning Naruto and wide eyed Sakura and sighed.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this…" he sighed.

"Neither can I."

At the sound of a fourth voice entering their conversation the three turned to see Sasuke standing mid-step in front of their table with an unimpressed scowl. He held a tray in his hand with a half eaten meal. Naruto wasn't fazed at all by the more than annoyed expression he gave them and shouted out.

"AH! Sasuke, perfect, you can help us with the plan too!"

"Hell no."

"Elloquint too, isn't he?" Kakashi nudged Sakura's shoulder playfully; it brought a soft giggle to the girl as she held a hand to her lips to hide her amusement. Her smile faded though as soon as Sasuke promptly ignored Naruto's enthusiasm and focus his venom on her.

"Don't bother trying to gain their attention, you wouldn't last a minute in a real battle. Much less something like high stakes battling." He spat. A cold stab hit her in the gut as all his words did. She turned away with a frown, holding her Budew's pokeball tightly.

He was right, of course. She wouldn't be able to handle it, but she thought she should at least try. Naruto looked happy enough to help, and she wanted to stick close to him.

"Big words for a kid who can only talk tough." Kakashi cleared his throat and eyed the dark haired trainer with a dull look. Sasuke's shoulders tensed ever so slightly as Kakashi caught Sakura's attention with a pat on the head.

"All trainers and pokemon start out weak. That's what growing is used for." He stated before standing up.

"And since the two of you were so adamant that I let you help me, I will—"

AW YEA—"

Kakashi held up a hand to silence Naruto before he shouted out his excitement for the plan.

"And I'm dragging this little Stunky Head into this." An eye crinkle and pointed finger later at the very dissatisfied Sasuke and the three were whisked off to the man's room there at the pokemon center to talk more in depth of this harebrained scheme to draw out a possibly dangerous criminal.

However, it took twenty minutes after the fact to stop Naruto from laughing at the fact Kakashi used Sakura's nickname for their broody and spiteful companion.


	8. Double Doubt

Going to sleep had always been a hard thing to accomplish for Naruto. Yes, despite the many attractive and awesome qualities that made him who he was. And so, it was always his hyper active energy levels that always made it near impossible for him to really lay down to sleep once the sun went down. More often than not, the blond boy would lay awake in his bed with his eyes wide open. He would be twitchy and jittery, his limbs screaming for him to go out and do something.

Tonight was no different and the boy found himself lying on top of the blankets in the top bunk of the bunk bed situated in the guest lodging of Taizaku Gai's Pokemon Center. Shifting all his weight to the side, Naruto leaned over the edge to poke his head downwards. Blue eyes blinked as he squinted through the darkness to see the lump on the bottom bunk, blissfully unaware of his inner turmoil.

He stared down at the mop of pale pink hair as his roommate, and bestest buddy ever, slept soundly. He could hear her soft breathing from his place above her and sighed. He was grateful and all for this boundless energy of his and all…But sometimes a boy just wanted to fall asleep and become blissfully unaware of the goings on around him too.

Maybe 'goings on' was not the best way to word it though. Naruto felt…He lifted himself back up to his bed and lay on his elbows so he could face the window. He, as well as Sakura could feel it the moment they entered the tiny village. Eyes were on the trainers and it was uncomfortable. Sure, he was use to it, a boy with a father like his got a lot of attention. But these eyes…this chill down his spine, told him to be wary.

Though, if he was being honest, he usually just shoved that wary instinct into the furthest corners of his mind. He liked living in the moment after all. Pesky preservation thoughts be damned. But Naruto understood that this time, he couldn't throw away his reservations now. Sakura was with him, and he liked her. A lot. And something bad that didn't quite settle with his own sense of shinning justice was happening in this town.

Groaning as he came to terms with the fact he wouldn't get to sleep until some ungodly hour, Naruto silently crept down the little latter and out into the hallway for a midnight snack.

A Miltank and Blissey passed him by on the way; they held a few documents that must have been for some sick pokemon in the infirmary wing. Even the nursing pokemon didn't catch a break during late nights either apparently. Down the hall he made a right, he passed the front desk and entered the cafeteria. Naruto made a bee line towards the counter with fresh fruit and chips placed on the counter kindly for other night Hoothoots on the prowl.

Shuffling around for a bit and grabbing some knock off soda pop drink the boy found a seat all alone in the farthest corner of the room. It was away from the windows. And while usually he would be the first to fight for a nice window seat, he wasn't so dense as to not feel uncomfortable in an open space in this troubled little village.

Pokemon gambling…After talking longer with that Kakashi guy, who he swore looked very familiar-or at least as familiar as a man wearing a mask can be—with a very hard headed Sasuke about the plan ahead, he and Sakura retired to their room. She lectured him for an extra hour on the dangers of gambling with pokemon and the illegality of it until he thought he would fall asleep right then on the linoleum floor.

It was…cruel. He thought; Naruto understood the dangers of regular battling, it was drilled into the kids at the academy as much as which grass type pokemon had edible, poisonous, or medicinal leaves. Given he couldn't really remember what leaves he could and could not eat, he remembered at each battle could be a pokemons' last if it goes wrong. He thought of his Vulpix, sleeping soundly in its poke ball in his room with grim determination. He never wanted to see Vulpix hurt, he never wanted any of his pokemon to go through pain again.

Naruto's thoughts wandered to the pokemon these gambling trainers must have. Did they even get a say in their trainer wanting to gamble them away because they thought they were better than the challenger? It was disgusting, pokemon are a trainers closest friends. You shouldn't gamble away a friends' life. It was reckless, even by his standards.

By the time Naruto had finally started feeling the edges of exhaustion peek its head, the idiot had gone through two bags of chips and five drinks. Still on his third bag, Naruto was broken out of his straying thoughts by the soft sound of someone clearing their throat.

Blinking the sleep from his eyes the blond looked up just as he was about to bring another chip into his mouth. The chip was promptly dropped on the ground.

Staring down at him through soft brown eyes and curtain of straight black hair was a pretty girl who couldn't have been much older than him.

"Uhhhhh…" Naruto felt him cheeks flush and mentally slapped the little part of him that thought this person was even prettier than Sakura.

"Hi there, mind if I join you? I couldn't sleep." This pretty black haired girl asked in a mellow voice. It was lower than he thought it would be, but he couldn't say it was unpleasant.

"Um…hello?" The girls pale hand waved in front of Naruto's face before he realized he had been staring at them for way too long.

"Uh—no, go right ahead!" He gave her a toothy grin and scooted closer to the wall to give his company some room. The beauty gave him a word of thanks before taking a seat. Naruto held out his bag of half eaten chips, the girl smiled sweetly and helped herself.

"So, uh, what's your name? I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" he greeted his company.

"Call me Haku." They introduced. Haku brushed their hair away from their face and over the shoulder not facing Naruto. He grinned again.

"So what's keeping you up?" He asked.

"Oh…you know, just feeling a little jittery, lots of things on my mind too." They shrugged. Haku turned to Naruto.

"How about you? You look like you're about to fall over."

"Nah! I always get so excited at the thought of doing something tomorrow that I stay up even longer. In fact, with what me and my friend Sakura have planned tomorrow, we're hoping to really help this place out big time!" he chatted, Haku raised a brow in innocent curiosity.

"Oh, you're not alone?"

"Nope," Naruto shook his head. "I'm traveling with Sakura, she's a really nice girl and my friend…Erm…and I guess Sasuke-teme too. I don't like him, but he's pretty good with battling—GYAH! Don't tell him I said that though, I'd totally deny it!" the blond waved his hand with wide eyes. Haku didn't really seem to understand but gave him a little laugh for his antics.

"Sure, my lips are sealed." He promised. Blue eyes blinked up at them and sighed with relief before the two continued on in an awkward silence…Well, at least awkward for Naruto, he didn't really know what to say to a pretty girl like this. Sakura was a different matter, because she was his friend.

"So…What's this big plan you mentioned for tomorrow?" Haku finally asked. Naruto scratched his chin for a moment, as if to decide whether or not to tell them or not. But with a cute tilt of Haku's head, Naruto grinned up at her.

"Well, you know about that weird gambling thing going on in the village?" Naruto asked. The boy didn't notice, but his companies slim shoulders tensed for a moment before relaxing as if it never happened. Their voice was still calm and even

"Of course, lots of trainers have been losing their pokemon because of it."

"Well let's just say with the help of some fancy investigative skills by Kakashi who works for the pokemon league, we'll be fishing the culprits behind it out of the shadows to catch them!" Naruto raised a fist into the air with a grin.

"No one will be able to beat me, Sakura, and Sasuke if we team up, we'll be a power house and attract their attention, then, we pounce and bring 'em down."

Haku laughed softly again.

"My, you and your friends sound really brave to do this."

Taking this as a complement, Naruto's cheeks couldn't help the cute blush that painted his cheeks as he scratched the back of his head. He was about to give a word of thanks when the brown eyed beauty peered down at a Xtransiver with the time highlighted. They looked up and gave an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, but I think I'm going to head to bed now. It was nice talking with you Naruto." Haku stood up from his seat even as Naruto pouted, just a little disappointed he couldn't talk to them anymore.

"Aw, alright then. But be careful out there tomorrow, it would suck if whoever is behind this hurt a pretty girl like you out there."

Haku raised an amused brow before holding a hand up to their lips to suppress a smile.

"Thanks Naruto…but I think I can handle myself, I am a boy after all." With that, Haku waved his hand good bye and left the cafeteria in a relaxed pace. Naruto, one the other hand, watched them go with wide eyes and slack jaw as what Haku said wrapped around his mind.

"SHE WAS A HE!" He yelped.

* * *

 

After breakfast the following morning was when the three most annoying people came to knock on his door and proceed to drag him out into the village in search of battles. Sasuke angrily jerked out of Naruto's excited grasp and straightened out his coats' collar as Sakura chased after them after what he supposed was telling the Pokemon League investigator that everything would be alright. The little sparkle in her bright green eyes told him everything. She was so easy to read it made him sick. Slowing as she caught up with him, she gave him a hesitant smile.

"Sorry, I told Naruto we should wait until noon, you don't like waking up early, right?" she started, Sasuke huffed and turned away from her as his shoulders scrunched up and his hands dipped into his pockets. He didn't understand how she could know that, sure, it was true he hated mornings, but they had only been traveling with each other for around a week. That shouldn't be enough time for anyone to pick up on another's' sleeping habits. It was safe to say he was not pleased in the slightest with how easily the pink haired girl picked up on his moods he thought were cleverly hidden.

He heard her sigh before her footsteps, once again, sounded behind him. Glaring at his boots, the trainer scowled, Naruto's excited howls and calls for challenges irked him. He didn't care about this villages' problems, and it wasn't his place to meddle in their affairs. The only good outcome of this was the fact he was at least fighting other trainers, he smirked outwardly, and he would most definitely be beating a lot of them too.

With all of the idiots yelling, the first battle didn't take long to come to them, he watched in silent anger that the blonde boy decided for himself that he would be the one to take the first challenge. When the pokemon where sent out, the Uchiha made himself a spot under the shade of a nearby tree to wait out the fight. The next one will most certainly be his.

"Go get him Naruto!" Sakura cheered from the side lines near him. Naruto shouted his commands in that same, obnoxious voice and he heard his Vulpix comply without complaint. He heard the hollow thumps of the fox pokemon make contact with the side walk and Naruto confident cheers for it to get back up. Eventually, the battle was won and the dumb blond came out to be the victor, he leaped and cheered and grabbed their pink haired companion's hands in a hyper victory dance.

And then, the challengers' sobs interrupted the loud cheers and even Sasuke brought himself out of his own thoughts as they watched the trainer send the pokemon back to its poke ball and out stretch his hands towards Naruto to take it.

Sasuke frowned and he watched Naruto stare in shock. Like he forgot about the types of battles they were dealing with right now.

"Ah—oh yeah, right. That gambling thing…" Naruto sighed as he knelt down to the defeated trainer.

"Look, I'm not gonna take your pokemon from ya." The blonde sighed. From beside him, Sakura nodded. Sasuke took this as his queue to join in on this part of the little 'mission'

"We want information about this gambling think going on here." The dark haired trainer spoke. Sakura and Naruto looked up to him, he frowned, what? Interrogation was the only way to go about this sort of thing and he wanted to wrap this up quickly.

Oh..um, but I don't really know too much to be honest…" the boy frowned up at Sasuke.

"Do you know how all this began? Who started these gambling battles?" Sasuke pressed. The boy looked down at the ground for a moment, his brows furrowed in thought. Sasuke saw his two companion watch with bated breath for the boys' answer.

"Well…a couple months ago a few trainers came to town and started battling some of the local trainers." The boy started. Good, Sasuke thought, now they would get somewhere.

"At first, it was the normal kind of fighting, you know, just for fun. But then, they started adding on rules for people who challenged them. That was how trainers started putting down money on their battles, eventually they recruited other trainers to participate…either by force or joining willingly. The stakes got higher. Then, last month a rumor started going around that the loser of one of the fights lost their pokemon—like, it got killed!"

Sasuke watched Naruto and Sakura's eyes widen. Sakura's mouth hung open in a disbelieving gap as she held a hand soothingly on the trainers shoulder. He continued his story and the trio listened quietly. Through cold eyes Sasuke watched as Naruto's jaw clench.

When they did finally send the boy away, pokemon and all, Naruto sighed heavily and fell back into the grass. His Vulpix sat close to his side.

"Man…this is crazy." He mumbled.

"What," Sasuke gave the trainer a condescending look. "you hear the dirty truth and you want to back out now? You're the one that dragged us into this 'investigation' stunt."

Naruto sat up abruptly and turned to Sasuke with an angry glare, but all the black haired trainer could to was scoff.

"What?! No! I'm just saying that was a lot to take in! So this is more than just beating up some bad guys, I get that, but it's wrong! And I feel wrong for letting it happen right under my nose, Sasuke." Naruto yelled back at the unaffected trainer. Sasuke sighed into the air, he didn't know why he even tried to talk to this dim wit.

"Crime happens Naruto, you can't expect to be able to just battle wrong doers and bring them to justice like that."

"Yeah…well, it should be that simple." He muttered up at Sasuke before standing back up to his level. He brushed the dirt from his clothes and carried on. However, Sasuke wasn't satisfied, the already deep frown on his face became a scowl and he turned to Sakura who had been silent up to this point with a thoughtful look on her face. For a moment, he couldn't believe she was even possibly buying into this act. It was sheer naiveté if anyone thought fixing the world's problems were that simple.

When he was caught staring he blinked and looked away, but she had caught him and she wore that same infuriating smile she always did when trying to act nice.

"You know…The fact that you're still here helping us do all this makes for a pretty weak argument on your side, Sasuke." She said. Black eyes widened a fraction, shoulders tensed and he swiftly faced her again. There was silence on both their sides after that and the girl began to squirm a little as the silence dragged on. Sasuke…honestly didn't know what to say at that and it frustrated him to no end. He stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets and was the first to turn away to follow Naruto down the street to speak with a huddle of trainers near a small grocery store. By now his scowl could have become permanent with all the sass he was on the receiving end of today with the two of these idiots.

* * *

 

It was around noon now, the trio had taken part in five battles so far. Well, more specifically, Sasuke and Naruto have taken part in the battles. More than once she turned down the chance and kept Budews poke ball hidden in her tight grasp. She had no delusions about her current skill level when it came to battling and found it easier to simply make sure neither Naruto's vulpix or Sasuke's murkrow were too badly injured.

It was at this time Sakura sat on a bench overlooking the berry orchards, with the simple homes with their cozy log cabin feel of Taizaku Gai at her back. Sasuke's Murkrow sat on her lap with a satisfied look as he shook out his dark indigo plumage. She took a damp wash cloth in her hand and gently dabbed at a scrape the bird pokemon received in its last battle against a hardy Munchlax.

The Murckrow had the gall to let out an indignant squawk as it looked up at her with what she could only describe as annoyance. She couldn't help her own amused smile.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm trying to clean it for you." She stuck her tongue out at the creature in her lap. As an offering of peace, she rubbed its cheek gently and received a satisfied sound. The crow settled itself back in her lap and let her resume her job of cleaning his minor wound.

As she did so, Sakura chanced a glance behind her as the boys she was with questioned another batch of trainers who had lost more money to this so called ringleader, one of them even lost his pokemon. The girl watched as the tallest of her companions crossed his arms and shook his head in a way that he does when he is not pleased. Apparently, whatever lack of information they were getting about the deeper workings of how this gambling thing was handled was becoming a lost cause.

Over the course of the day, the challengers they accepted had openly admitted to extorting money out of the trainers that lost to them, however, quickly as they received it, the trio are told that someone always came to receive a portion of it. This portion apparently when towards the one in charge who made sure no one of significance dug too deeply into the villages affairs.

Sasuke had wondered if this was what kept Kakashi from really getting a hard lead. Naruto just thought he was being a little lazy though, the man had yet to contact them even once since she and her companions started playing decoy.

Sakura felt a little exposed being so far from the two trainers she was warming up to. And in such an unpredictable village where Kakashi had said he would watch over them…she was sorely lacking in comfort right now. Since the days start and the first battle won and questions started flying from Narutos' and Sasuke's mouth, she's felt those shivers down her spine that forewarned her that eyes were on them. She couldn't tell the boys though, at least she thinks she shouldn't. It could all just be her paranoia and uncertainty that was driving her. Just like a fierce protectiveness of her Budew ceased all thought of battling right now, she knew the boys could handle themselves, and she was just doing the same in her own way.

"Pretty nice Murkrow, girl. Wanna see if I can win it off you?" a voice permeated through her thoughts. Sakura twitched and set her back ramrod straight. Staring up from her seat on the park bench two trainers stared down at her with wicked smiles on their faces. One of them was a boy with dark brown hair with a headband around his forehead, the other was a cocky looking girl with long, dark black hair tied low to her shoulders. Sakura gulped.

"I'm afraid this is my…uh, friends' pokemon." Sakura stuttered as she swiftly turned her gaze from somewhere behind her. Her green eyes widened in a way she hoped looked pleading as she caught Sasuke's gaze the moment he turned away from the group he and Naruto questioned. She blinked once, twice in a rapid, nervous motion and for a second she thought she saw him nod before she turned back to face these two trainers. They looked older than her too.

Neither looked too affected by her confession. The boy shrugged.

"Don't you have a Pokemon then?"

"Hmm, I don't think she would be able to hold onto one if she did Akado." The girl chuckled. "She looks like I could beat her with a single attack."

Sakura scowled, unsure how to take this, they were insulting her, for sure, but she didn't exactly have the fighting power to deny their claims.

"AH! Hey, what're you guys talking about with Sakura!?" And then popped in the ball of sunshine that was Naruto as he leaned forward on the bench with an unhappy scowl of his own. She looked his way and caught Sasuke walking up to his other side. She opened her mouth to say something, but the flutter of Murkrows wings drown out anything she could have said as it left her lap to return to Sasuke's shoulder.

The pair before her must not have said something that pleased Naruto, he made an undignified shout.

"You…You've no right to say that about someone you don't know! Sakura, say something!" the blond turned to her with a sour face.

"Hey, we aren't trying to be mean or anything…" The one named Akado snorted. "We just, you know, think she's pretty pathetic looking for a trainer."

Sakura's throat tightened as his words reached her, green eyes pointedly looked up at these two cruel trainers.

The one called Rin snickered this time.

"Really, they shouldn't allow people like you to have pokemon—"

Sakura went stiff, she didn't hear Naruto's enraged cry for her honor after that. She missed the tense set to Sasuke's shoulders too as they said the same exact thing he once told her. Round eyes hardened.

What right did they have? To dictate who was worthy of a pokemon or not. Her hand squeezed the sphere in her hand.

"Do you want to bet on that?" Sakura's soft voice broke through the argument that heated up on Naruto's side. She was damn tired of hearing people say what she shouldn't do. She came out here to do just the opposite in fact. She would do the opposite, and she would succeed.

Now the young trainer had the attention of the two antagonists and even the two she had spent the day with. Silently, Sakura stood from her seat and took her time to brush the dust from her dress. The poke ball she clutched tightly in her hand felt like it vibrated almost with aggravation, she could almost hear Budew cry out challengingly.

For a brief passage of time Sakura had to wonder where all this spunk had come from. Setting her eyes on the trainers and lifting Budews poke ball into their line of sight she pressed them with a hard glare. The same glare she had given Naruto the day they met as she screamed her head off at him.

"I challenge you to a pokemon battle-both of you." Sakura seethed.

Somewhere off to her right she was sure she heard someone make a noise that sounded like it was shocked. She wasn't sure who it was though, Sasuke looked unaffected, if a little caught off guard when she issued her first challenge. Naruto looked baffled, but also excited as well.

"Hah! You don't honestly think you can take us on at once do you?" Akado scoffed. He had a point though, the young trainer crossed her arms then, and gave a confident smile.

"Want a handicap?" she asked in a tone of voice she wasn't sure she had ever used. "Then let's make it a double battle-" She turned to her blond friend who angrily stood up for her this entire time. "Naruto and I versus the two of you."

From beside her the boy jumped up in joy.

"All right Sakura! We'll kick their ass!"

It didn't take but five minutes to walk down to the berry orchard where the people were scarce and the five trainers were practically alone. Sakura stood with Naruto close by, their poke balls cluched tightly in their hands while Sasuke sat back with his own with mild interest.

Sakura made her first move and threw her poke ball with wild determination.

"Budew!" She called out as the bright red laser waved erratically to the ground and shaped her dear friend. Naruto followed ecstatically behind her, Vulpix jumped from her own poke ball confines with a confidant roar. The fox pokemon landed at Budews side and they gave each other a knowing look in their sparkling eyes. Their trainers did the same.

Their challengers didn't take too long as they commanded the release of their pokemon.

"Stableye!" Akado threw his poke ball.

"Mawile!" Rin released hers and the fight began.

Naruto, of course, was the first to start shouting commands, even as Sakura still ran all she knew of these pokemon through her mind.

"Vulpix, quick attack!" The fox complied to her trainers command and sprinted of quick paws to her closest target, the Stableye. Sakura gasped though and turned to Naruto.

"No, normal attacks don't hurt ghost types!" she hissed. Naruto looked at her like it was the first time he'd heard the news and behind them she heard Sasuke call him an idiot.

As predicted, Vulpix ran straight through the jewel eyed creature as it chuckled and disappeared for a split second. Sakura didn't waste her time this time and faced her own trouble as Mawile charged towards Budew with her giant jaws opened wide behind it.

"Leech Seed!" She called, and leech seed she got as Budew opened the bulb on her head to let a single seed, glowing red to be shot out. The force knocked the incoming pokemon on its back as the energy sucking plant started working in time for Vulpix to be thrown into her Budew. The two went tumbling and Sakura flinched, but not Naruto as he cheered his pokemon on and get to her feet. Sakura bit her lip.

With Budew on her feet again, Akado ordered a fury swipes. The air whipped up behind it as pink scales caught the light.

The fairy wind attack forced their pokemon to stand their ground before they could defend. Budew was the first to topple over without the advantage of claws to help her dig into the ground. Sableye went after her and Sakura was at a loss for what to do as her pokemon took a thrashing by sharp claws.

"Poison Powder!" she cried when the attack had slowed and a fire spin got rid of the fairy wind. Budew bounced back quickly though and sent a thick cloud of spores in her opponents direction and straight into the mouth of vulpix's fire spin. There was a spark and then the clearing was covered in smoke, a loud noise shook the earth around them. They called to their pokemon, Naruto covered their faces with his hoodie as the smoke began to clear.

Through the haze, Sakura's intelligent eyes narrowed as she watched the surprised figures of the pokemon emerge.

It had been an explosion. Something about the thoughts in her mind and how she sorted them felt natural. Vulpix, a fire attack, and Budew with her flammable spores. She smiled over the watery eyes and smoke dried throat.

"Naruto, do that again." She said. He looked down at her

"Huh?" he asked. She pointed to their pokemon.

"When Budew releases another poison powder, surround them with fire." She offered, it didn't take long for her friend to understand where she was going with this and nodded his head only once with a big grin on his face.

Out on the field, Mawile grunted as leech seed brought its accumulating energy to Budew and Sableye tilted its head a little dazedly. Budew stood off to the side as Vulpix ran up to it, but her little grass tip bounced back fast with the leech seed in action. That was when orders where shouted once more and Sableye and Mawile where at it again, a bite from Mawiles black jaw clamped down hard on Vulpix's tail. She shrieked so hard Naruto cursed.

"Knock her off Vulpix!" he shouted. But Sakura was too distracted as she saw her partner pinned down, Sableye had a certain gleam in its eyes that she just knew was not good. It's rough claws bared down on Budew.

"Budew!" She shouted. "Fight it, bullet seed!" The duel type growled in annoyance, much like its trainer as Budew did just that, blinking rapidly before spitting out a hail of golden seeds at point blank range. The purple creature was thrown back and hit Vulpix in the side. They three landed like dead weight and Sakura looked back to Naruto with an apology. He waved his hand and pointed back to the battle in time to tell his dirt smudged fox to split into a double team. It did, only one had a Mawile attached to it now.

"Pull it off you, you guys!" Naruto cheer as the dozens of clones of Vulpix roared in triumph before biting down on the shocked steel type. Rin shouted in anger this time and told her pokemon to hold on tight. However, it only took maybe three hard tugs and an enraged Vulpix to throw the challenger aside and learn hairs from her tail had been pulled out.

Naruto smacked his forehead as his pokemon and its many clones looked at its tail, then looked up to glare at the boy.

Sakura, couldn't really help the giggle that bubbled to her throat, her bright eyes shined and poked the boy in the side. He nodded as he pointed his Vulpix and clones to surround the opponents as Budew ran forward just enough to release a cloud of purple. Inside it, Sableye coughed.

"Flame Thrower everyone!" Naruto commanded, Sakura covered her nose and she watched her Budew run from the chaos as about a dozen flame thrower attacked surrounded Mawile and Sableye. The moment the fire touched the poison powder spores ignited and the orchard was once more, gifted with a marvelous explosion.

The force of the hot air blew pink strands of hair away from her face as they group waited for the smoke to clear. It took that time and more for Sakura's racing heart beat to slow once more as she looked out in front of her to see if her Budew made it out unscathed.

Budew's excited shout was heard and Akado and Rins' indignant shrieks gave her all the information she needed as she ran up to her pokemon as the forms of the defeated Mawile and Sableye lay in the dirt unconscious. With a happy shout, Budew jumped into Sakura's arms and she laughed so freely in relief.

"Budew, we won, we won!" she laughed. Naruto walked over with a gleeful grin with his Vulpix joining them until he motioned over to the rude trainers that started all this. Akado clicked his tongue as the two recalled their pokemon and glared up at Sakura and the blond. This time though, she refused to flinch away.

Her still busy mind pieced together what their group had learned thus far from the days investigation.

"You two…you where the first ones to ask us to battle for pokemon." She murmured.

"Are you two involved in what's been happening lately?" she asked.

"If we were, I don't think I'd tell you." Akado sneered and took a step back with his partners arm in his hand.

"I'd watch your back if I were you though…you never know whose anger you might stir up." He hissed before running off in the other direction.

Watching them leave, she ignored the crude gesture and remarks a haughty Naruto made. The cold glare she had been met with in the face of her and Naruto's victory sent a foreboding chill down her spine that she wanted to ignore.


	9. Damsel Damnation

"Budew! Lunch is ready, come back over here." Sakura called out to the little spring green bud as it bounced around a collection of daisies in the park the trio decided to have lunch at. She frowned a little as her pokemon decided it rather liked bumbling around the flowers more than eating to regain her strength. It hadn't been that long since her and Naruto's victory over those strange trainers who had been harassing her. Maybe an hour at the most since that seemed to be enough time for Naruto to stop bragging to every trainer they met up with after instead of asking around about the two named Ren and Akado.

"I'm going to eat your sandwiches Sakura!" Naruto teased her lightly as he took a bite out of his second. They had set up the lunch she decided to put together with leftovers from the pokemon center at a picnic table in the berry orchards so they could plan out their next move.

Those two trainers had given them their best lead, now they just had to dig up their dirt and maybe they would be able to help Kakashi put an end to this mess.

Sakura turned back over to Naruto long enough to stick her tongue out at him.

"Touch my food and I will end you." She threatened lightly as she went back to get her Budew personally. Naruto's laugh was just one pitch too high from her threat and she thought she heard Sasuke say something. She shrugged it off and followed her Budew whose attention was caught by a flutter of Butterfree and walked off farther into the nearby foliage. The pink haired trainer rolled her eyes and followed after.

"You silly thing." Sakura laughed to herself as she caught the grass type, it gave light cry of happiness as she looked down at the creature in her arms. Twin smiles graced their faces.

"Come on, we should go eat lunch before the others take it all." She murmured and turned to walk back to where the boys and their pokemon were.

* * *

 

For what felt like the hundredth time, Naruto glanced over at the trees where Sakura had gone off to retrieve her pokemon. His blonde eyebrows furrowed. Something was wrong. He didn't know what, but the only girl in this three man team should all ready be sitting here and eating her ham sandwiches that he was eyeing up like a kid with a mountain of chocolate ice cream in front of them; too impossibly yummy to pass up.

But she wasn't.

"Hey Sasuke…how long does it take someone to walk behind a bunch of trees to pick up a pokemon as small as Budew?" Naruto asked the silent boy across from him as he sipped lukewarm tea once more. Black eyes followed Naruto's gaze, it looked less than pleased.

"Go get her if you're so worried, dobe." He shrugged. But when he set his plastic cup on the table Naruto noticed it was distinctly empty. The boy raised a teasing brow, ha, Sasuke was getting nervous too. He pursed his lips, crap…Sasuke was getting nervous too.

Really, Naruto knew he shouldn't be worrying so much, maybe she just got distracted. It wasn't like someone was just going to up and take a girl for no reason. Naruto frowned, well, actually…

Not liking his train of thought, the trainer sat up swiftly and made a b-line for the trees. There was no reason to worry, Sakura was just distracted, yeah, distracted, that sounds like a perfectly good excuse!

"Hey, Sakura, what's the hold up?" he asked as loudly as he wanted to. Maybe if he talked louder, she would answer him more quickly. And yet, there wasn't an answer. Sakura wasn't behind the trees where Budew had wandered off. Budew wasn't even there. Uncomfortably nervous, Naruto chuckled to himself.

"No…she just walked a little farther…yeah…yeah…" He told himself as he called for the pink haired girl again, then a third time until he made a small group of Butterfree flutter off.

Naruto stopped walking at that point and looked around like maybe he missed something. Like Sakura. But there was no sign of the novice trainer and her grass type and his nerves began to quiver and fray more and more.

"Sasuke!" he yelled and began a swift backtrack to their lunch spot.

"Sasuke!" he yelled again and jumped out of the way from the foliage and to where a very tense shouldered Sasuke stood and had all their things put up and away. He turned over to Naruto as soon as the blonde came back into sight.

"Sakura..she's…" Naruto rasped, clearly panicked. The skin around Sasuke's eyes tightened as he grabbed Sakura's red messenger bag with a white knuckled grip.

"We need to find that Kakashi guy." He stated, the other boy needn't say another word of agreement before the two were returning their pokemon to their pokeballs and bolting for the pokemon center. Because Sakura was now apparently missing and that didn't sit well with the two boys.

They found him in the poke center cafeteria looking through a thin file with a mug of coffee. As the two trainers made it a point to get his attention as they walked up to him the investigator looked up at them with a dubiously amused look.

"Ah, have you found anythi—"

"Sakura disappeared." Sasuke interrupted suddenly with a steely glare. It was light he blamed the older man for everything at this point, even the crime that got them involved in this whole mess. Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet in wide eyed worry. His tanned hands pulled at his blond locks.

"She just went to get Budew for lunch when she walked off somewhere and when I went to go get her she was just gone! Both her and Budew, what are we gonna do? Where's she go and who took her?" Naruto screeched. Kakashi raised up his hands in tentative defeat.

"Hey, whoa now, calm down Naruto. Tell me what happened today after I left you guys to go gather info, maybe there's a clue as to why she suddenly ran off—"

KIDNAPPED!" The blond teenager corrected loudly as his companion shoved him into the booth seat. Kakashi sighed, Sasuke crossed his arms tensely with a scowl, and Naruto flipped his shit.

And when his shit was successfully flipped only then was Naruto understandable and reasonable enough to reassure she wasn't dragged off by some dragon pokemon, or spirited away by a Dusknoir….probably.

"So…lets go over what Sasuke told me." Kakashi sighed ruefully. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. Why did he get children involved again?

"You got something about a pair of trainers challenging others then escalating the bets to involve money or their own pokemon. You run into a pair that was harassing Sakura, and then decided to 'kick their ass', as Naruto put it, in a double battle."

"Sakura chose me to team up with her!" Naruto cheered.

"Right…"

"They won, I think they said something near the end, but I was too far away to be sure." Sasuke muttered with a shrug before his eyes glinted with something akin to remembrance.

"…I think Sakura heard what they said though…While this idiot," he pointed at Naruto. "was jumping around like a fool, she was looking at them weirdly, they ran off right after, but she didn't really say anything about it after words."

"I see…" Kakashi thought it dreadfully obvious now, the girl had caught the ire of potentially dangerous criminals. The girl looked naïve enough not to really understand the chance of that happening and now look where it had gotten her. Scratching at his mask in dread he reached for his belt to unclip a poke ball.

"I think it's safe to say this investigation just got a lot more dangerous now with a kidnapping under their belt." The man said tiredly as he got to his feet. It was almost immediate when the two teenagers noticed the poke ball in the grip of the investigator and stood up too. They eyed him with varying degrees of emotion.

Naruto wanted to rescue his friend, and Sasuke, he looked like he might actually regret letting the pink haired girl out of his sight. In Sasuke's grip was the girls bright red travel bag, Kakashi saw the white knuckled grip despite the black haired youths forcibly apathetic expression.

"That's her bag right?" the man pointed to the red bag. Sasuke nodded, so did Kakashi in affirmation before releasing the pokemon tucked away in its container.

There was an affirmative bark as the beast was released and stretched its black furred hide with an arch before looking up at the investigator. It was a Mightyena with a piercing red gaze and black fur in just as much disarray as its silver haired trainer. It barked again as its trainer ran a hand over his head and turned to the teenagers again.

"This here is Mightyena, let him sniff Sakura's back and we can track her through her scent. If we're lucky it'll lead us to the culprits of this whole mess too."

* * *

 

A box was sealed shut by pale hands before a shipping card was slid into the clear pocket with the send address. The hands gripped the corners and a heavy sigh was the only sound in the small rented cabin on the edge of Taizaku Gai. Lifting the box the lone figure stacked it on top of two other decent sized boxes. There was shifting and a clatter as they heard the poke balls and bagged money settle.

Looking up, the reflection of a mirror caught their well groomed black hair and androgynous features. Pained eyes looked back at the figure before the sudden light from the slammed open front door spooked them. Turning around Ren and Akado stumbled in at that moment with an extra guest.

"Where have the two of you…." They trailed off at the noticeable slump in the pink haired girls' posture before staring incredulously at the two that worked for him.

"What the hell did you do? We agreed on no one getting hurt!" they seethed. Akado sent a sneer their way before dumping the poor girl on the carpet, she groaned once before falling silent.

"Hey, we did you a favor," Ren rolled her eyes as she shoved a poke ball in the other person's chest. "She was with that blond idiot you mentioned was working with that creepy investigator."

"And your first thought with that information was to knock some girl out and drag her back here!? You could have just avoided her, you realize this just makes things more difficult than it needed to be? Get in, get money, get pokemon, then get out, those were our orders. He said nothing about a federal crime!" a palm made it to their face as they rubbed it in agony at the idiocy of Ren and Akado.

"He never said we couldn't." Akado said as he crossed his arms. "At least those loser's will be more focused on missing this chick than our little gambling ring."

"She saw our faces, and she suspected the two of us even before we decided to grab her. We can just ship her off to Him as well, he's always looking for special subjects for his…more secretive work." Ren reasoned with a shrug.

"Just leave her to us Haku and pack up her pokemon with the rest." The young woman demanded before dragging Akado back out with a slam of the door. Haku was left alone once more, but with an unconscious girl who was now thrown into a plot he really didn't want her getting involved in. Glancing over at her, Haku bit his lip nervously.

This wasn't the plan; he was only brought here because of the favor he owed. He had told those two countless times to keep the violence to a minimum, these were innocent trainers; all they needed was money and test subjects.

Kneeling down by the pink haired girl, Haku lifted her head to set down a throw pillow to keep her comfortable until he knew what to do with her. His boss was a cruel and scary man, he didn't want some fifteen year old fresh out of town to get roped in with the likes of him.

Wide eyes as bright as new leaves stared up at him suddenly. Haku stared back in silent shock as she woke up in his arms. His stomach dropped as she opened her mouth to what he assumed was for a scream before promptly slapping a hand over it. He looked down at her wide eyed and unsure. This was so not something he was good with handling. Men, sure, they were easy, they were something he was familiar with and knew what buttons to press. Women on the other hand….Ren didn't count. She was a Giratina forsaken bitch.

Haku pressed a finger to his lips in a pleading way to tell her to keep quite.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't think my cohorts would do something like this. Please be quite, they usually stick close by and I don't like their idea of getting rid of you."

Big green eyes stared up at him like a defenseless Deerling as she nodded. Slowly, Haku released her and helped the girl sit up. She was obviously shaken, and she reached out to rub the back of her head. Haku winced inwardly, they must have hit her. When the girl got her bearings she pat her dress down before going pale, she checks her sweaters pockets then the ground as if it search for something. Blinking dark brown eyes, the boy glanced down at the poke ball Ren had shoved at him before leaving. He held it out to the girl who stared at it for a second before swiping it out of his palm and releasing an equally shaken Budew that leaped into her arms. The trainer hugged her partner tightly before looking up at her capture.

"W-Who are you?" she squeaked.

"Haku. I'm so sorry." He murmured. Sakura focused her big green eyes on him for a moment and he was so sure he could see tiny gears inside of them, turning, working, and piecing whatever knowledge she had about the recent happenings together. Haku looked down, no hiding from eyes like that.

"We were right…those two, they had something to do with what's going on in Taizaku Gai." She stated. Haku nodded.

"Yeah…They were sent to work for me…" he sighed in defeat. Sakura raised her brows in surprise.

"Work for you? Then you're—"

"I started this whole, thing, but those two…Arceus! It was only supposed to be a money scam; we weren't supposed to harm anybody." He ran a petite hand through his long hair. Sakura watched him with a pensive look.

"I have to stop you, you know—or at least, I have to get out of here to find the investigator and my friends." She murmured, unsure really of how to go about her current position as a hostage. Haku sighed and looked at her through his fingers before nodding.

"Guess that slimy weirdo won't be getting his money after all."

"You honestly don't seem too tore up about that." She pointed out, but her captor only shrugged.

"I'm just some street kid picked up out of some dirty city slum to do someone's dirty work. If I had a choice I wouldn't even be here."

Silence reined once more over the cabin as Sakura let her worried Budew calm down before taking the lull in conversation to finally study her surroundings. It was a small place, one room and looked like something that would be rented out to tourists. It was still relatively sunny outside from what she could tell from the frosted window adorning the only door leading to the outside world. The layout consisted of a bed, a couple love seats, table and chairs, with a tiny kitchenette and a mini fridge. The only other door was open to reveal a small bathroom. It was cramped, but homey.

Turning to the person she woke up to, she saw his stress eyes squeeze shut as he ran a hand through long black hair. She had half a mind to be jealous of such pretty hair, not a strand out of place. Their face, their body, it had an otherworldly design, it was hard to tell whether they were man or woman if it wasn't for the slightly low pitch of their soft, heavenly voice and the adam's apple that bobbed as they gulped nervously.

He didn't seem all that scary. When she thought about 'ring leader of a gambling ring' delicate and pretty boys that were older than her were not the first things that popped into her mind. The absolute sincerity in his voice as he apologized to her felt genuine, she didn't think she could really be hateful towards him if he was so unwilling to really keep her locked away like this.

"You really don't want to be doing all this?" she asked. Haku looked at her with a miserable expression.

"If I don't, He will annihilate me." He offered. She furrowed her brow; there was something else that didn't make her bury him in guilt. If he was simply doing all this because he was coerced into it, could he really be blamed?

"No…no I really don't want to be doing this." He told her as she nodded her head.

"Did you never try to get out of this?" she murmured. But Haku lowered his head to his knees.

"He'll find me, those two that brought you here…despite the fact they are supposed to obey my commands I'm pretty sure they were sent here to just watch over me and report to Him."

Then there was that. Who was 'He'? She would have asked, if not for a sudden commotion coming from outside. There was a shout from the two she had met earlier that day—the ones she fought—before the sound of a small scale explosion rocked the earth. In their surprise the two in the cabin jolted back before Haku narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

Without a word to his hostage, the black haired teenager set a hand on Sakura's shoulder as a way to tell her to stay there. Sakura, however, gave him a dull glare and stood up with him and followed Haku to the door to open it just a crack. It was just in time to watch a shadow ball ram into Mawile and send the dual type flying.

A familiar scout of enthusiasm made her grin as a swirling vortex of fire surrounded a Sableye.

Looking up to Haku who had his own flabbergasted expression she tugged at his loose hair. She gained his attention.

"Looks like the rescue squad arrived." She beamed at him, she was rewarded with a small smile as they opened the door wider in time to see an ecstatic blond trainer laughing as his Vulpix chased off the two enemy trainers with a constant ember attack.

Walking out of the door and bringing Haku with her, Sakura started for her blond friend when she got another shock. Kakashi, she expected, he was a detective after all and she supposed he knew the area well and was happy to see someone was smart enough to go to him for aid. What she didn't expect though, was the silently watching form of Sasuke as he crossed his arms in his leather jacket. The moment their eyes met he locked onto her with a piercing stare. It made her stumble in her quick trek to their three man group and she frowned at the little tug of apprehension the look gave her before shaking her negative feelings aside. She didn't need them; she just needed to be happy that this ended far quicker and painless than it had started.

"Naruto!" She called to the boy as she deftly broke contact with the tense teenager holding up the rear of the party. From behind her she felt the older boy tense and air leave his lungs before snorting. He muttered something under his breath that the Budew trainer didn't bother to catch before a ball of hyper sunshine was talking her in a bone crushing hug.

"Sakura! You're alright!" he shrieked in glee. Wrapping her arms around the boys' waist, she set her chin over his shoulder.

"Did I worry you? I'm sorry, but its okay, Haku was nice." She reassured the blond as they released their embrace and the other two joined them. When Naruto did get a good look at the person with Sakura his jaw dropped at the awkward look Haku gave him.

"It's you! The pretty guy that kept me company last night!"

Haku gave a little wave.

"Yeah….hi again."

"Wait—" a pink head whipped from one to the other. "You two know each other?" she asked. Sasuke rubbed his temple…of course Naruto would know the culprit and not know it.

"I feel like there is about to be a long and complicated explanation to the truth behind all this." Kakashi sighed to the sky. "So let's just get comfortable and I can take your statement."

* * *

 

Kakashi sat back in the chair in the cabin as Haku finished filling him and the rest of the occupants in the room in on what his role was in the gambling ring. In the beginning, the man would admit to the thought that this whole troublesome matter was just some punk out for a few extra bucks. Oh how wrong he was now.

The league will have to be informed.

"I don't really get it, who's Orochimaru?" Naruto scratched the back of his head and looked up at the silver haired man from his seat on the couch next to the female trainer of the group. Kakashi spared him a glance and saw similarly confused expressions on his little information gatherers.

"Orochimaru…" Haku sighed. "He's a researcher stationed in Otogakure. He runs a lot of strange operations out of their city. It's pretty shady and he makes it a habit of picking up runaways like me to do his dirty work in exchange for food and protection."

"Shady?" Naruto blinked.

"He's been vaguely connected to a few incidents where the bodies of genetically altered pokemon have been found outside the Oto borders. There have also been rumors that it was through his connections several sacred grounds where legendary pokemon rested were vandalized." Kakashi wrote something in the hand held note pad he had brought out at the start of this gathering. His shoulders slumped as the group let the information sink in, Naruto's disgusted hiss was heard and Sakura bit her lip as Budew burrowed closer to her trainer.

"That's…horrible…" the girl murmured.

"Yeah…it is. And the worst part is the league can't get any solid evidence to really investigate the size of his operation so we're all just waiting for the next big shock to show up over their borders." The investigator muttered as a 'thunk' of his closing notebook ended that line of topic.

"The question now…is what to do with you now." He pointed a tired look at Haku whose fists pulled at the end of his shirt.

* * *

 

That evening, Kakashi left with Haku after he put the case to rest and informed the village that the gambling and harm unto the pokemon and their trainers would cease and that all involved had either escaped or are being dealt with. The two shared a dinner at the center with the trio before they headed out. Kakashi had assured her and Naruto that Haku would be in safe hands, he would take the run away to a friend of his in Kirigakure.

Sasuke hadn't bothered to go back to his room that night after kicking Naruto out of his bed to take the bunk above Sakura's. They were far too tired from the wild events to be bothered with the fact this was their last night together before Sasuke went off on his own to challenge the league and she and Naruto would just head to the next town.

"Ah!" Sakura suddenly gasped just as sleep was starting to unwind the two boys in the room.

"Shut up Sakura." Sasuke hissed in aggravation. The girl snorted.

"Sorry, but I just remembered why the name 'Kakashi was so familiar to me. Sasuke…that was the gym leader stationed in konoha that was out of town." She revealed, amused giggles burst from her at the spiteful string of curses that flowed out of the angry youth above her.

"Sorry you didn't get to challenge him before he left."

The Uchiha huffed, his hand appeared over his bunk as he pointed at he like a child.

"Just go to sleep Sakura."


	10. River Water Bully

Traveling with Naruto was shaping up the be as energetic as the boy himself as Sakura watched with an amused smile as the blond swatted at a flock of Fletchling's poking at him with their tiny beaks. This was after the Oodish family they stumbled upon decided he was one of them and tried to greet him with the horrid smelling spores their long leaves would release.

She laughed as the flock decided to fly off bored and the blond returned to her side with a scowl. Pokemon seemed to really like Naruto. Though he didn't really understand it himself, it was always like that apparently from what he told her. Sakura thinks she understood though, Naruto had an air about him that made him seem totally harmless. It was one of the things she liked about the trainer that made him a good traveling companion.

However, one the other hand, compared to Naruto, Sasuke was trying his hardest to ignore the fact they were going in the same direction as him. Looking farther up the path, the female trainer could see the dark figure of Sasuke's as he traveled a few paces in front of them. They had agreed they would no longer travel in a group after Taizaku Gai, however, it felt kind of pointless what with them all heading the next town over in River province, Tanigakure if she recalled.

* * *

 

"So, think we should invite him to our little lunch break?" Naruto muttered close to her ear as Sakura decided that with the sun so high in the sky it was as good a time as any to stop to eat. She turned her attention away from the tree line to spot a good clearing to set up a place for lunch to glance at the brooding teen ahead and shrugged.

"Why not, he's here anyways and he looks like the type to forget to eat when he looks like theirs a storm cloud over his head." She muttered back, just as conspiratorially as the boy. Naruto grinned down at her and gave her a thumb up. He rushed on a head to grab onto Sasuke's neck in a sudden head lock. The dark haired boy yelped and you didn't hear it from her…but it wasn't a very manly yelp.

The two grumbled and yelled at each other before Naruto pointed a tan finger her way. That must have been when the prospect of food was mentioned because two sharp eyes narrowed in on her and she gave a little wave.

"You hungry yet?" she called over. She almost didn't see it, but Sasuke nodded.

Setting up for a little picnic right off the trail was easy enough as the pokemon wandered off on their own. The past few days had been spent similarly as they traveled 'separately' from each other but ate and slept together. All ready, the boys were picking out some of the local berries the three of them had taken to picking off the surrounding trees to put into plastic containers Sakura, of course, had the mind to pack. While the three human's settled down for the moment to eat their berries each of their pokemon came back in turn with more to replenish their little stock.

A jab to her side made the female trainer look up to see Naruto gesturing over to the two grass types. Budew held up a very plump looking Bluk berry in her split bulb on top her head with a pleased smile. Cotonee was following close behind with a glimmer of pride in his golden eyes as the floating cotton ball balanced one too many berries atop its head. Its leafy ear flap waved, trying so hard to get Budews attention on it that it lost a berry or two on its trip back to their humans.

Sakura brought a hand to her lips to hide the amused smile while her blond friend just snorted.

"Hey Sasuke, I think your Cotonee has a little crush." He teased; the tone earned a scowl from the other trainer who cast a look to the small gathering of pokemon.

Vulpix was in the corner, trying so very hard to eat her Leppa berries and not cast a glance at the two grass types. One of which was trying to mind her own business as it handed the dark Bluk berry to Sasuke's Murkrow as the other pushed over a brightly colored berry. Cotonee glared up at the indigo bird pokemon as it cawed in amusement behind Sakura's partner, who at that point, was eating next to Murkrow. She was oblivious to the staring match between Sasuke's pokemon.

And from the groan of exasperation, the other two trainers decided Sasuke wasn't much too pleased either.

"This isn't happening." He muttered mostly to himself as Sakura and Naruto snickered at him from the sidelines.

"Oh don't be such a worry wart Sasuke, once the two of us are out of your general vicinity you won't have to worry about him fawning over Budew like that." Sakura reassured the boy with his head in his hand.

"Shut up." The boy grunted before taking a large, irksome bite out of his lunch.

The break was a short affair and it wasn't long before the three trainers and their pokemon were ready to get on the move again. Sakura had just packed the last of her berries into her bag when she picked up a thermos she kept water in. She went to take a drink only to notice there was far too little for her likeing. Closing the container up she turned to Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke, do you know if Murkrow spotted anywhere that had fresh water while it was gathering something to eat?" she asked. The bird in question tilted its head when its name was called. Sasuke shrugged and turned to murmur something in his partners direction before it nodded and flew off to land on the pink haired girls head.

"Just follow where he takes you and hurry up, I want to get into the valleys before dark." He muttered.

"Stunky-Head…you realize we are but lowly humans and are incapable of extreme speed, right?" Naruto gave the other a dry look. "Just chill." He threw an arm over the trainers shoulders which he promptly shoved off to go wait under the shade of a tree. Naruto rolled his eyes and went to go collect his vulpix.

* * *

 

Murkrow kept the pace through the forest slow enough as Sakura kept her head inclined to always be able to spot the flutter and flap of dark wings. Through the trip she spotted other wild pokemon in the trees.

A family of Sentret here, a Burmy there.

Sakura had to stop at those points and just look at the pokemon as they went about their scuttling in the trees. She had rarely, if ever saw wild pokemon before leaving home. Maybe a few Meowths and their litter on the side of the street, but someone would always be throwing out food to them at least. And the strays were friendly enough. Her mother often brought pokemon off the streets to care for at the daycare she worked at.

In their natural habitat…pokemon were mysterious. Sakura let out a small squeak when something under her made her stumble into the trunk of a tree. Catching herself before face planting the trainer sighed through her nose then turned back to see what tripped her up. From their burrow, a couple Bunnelby poked their heads out and blinked up at her. Sakura blinked back for a second before shooting a grin and waving down at them, startled, the tan-ish rabbits ducked back down into their home.

A call from Sasuke's pokemon brought her back to the task at hand though and she quickly turned back around to catch up to it. This time she paid a little more attention to where she stepped and narrowly avoided a dashing Zigzagoon darting out of a fern.

Sakura wondered if she should take this chance to catch another pokemon. There were just so many out here as it was, it made the decision so hard. Should she catch that Pichu curling up next to that Pikachu, or maybe one of those Skitty playing with their tails by those flowers? As the trees thinned out again to less grass and more mud and rounded rocks the sound of a river came into her thoughts just in time to see Murkrow land nearby.

She threw the crow a thank you before setting her bag close to the guarding bird pokemon and dug out her thermos.

"Hm…is this even fresh water?" she mumbled to herself as she crouched down on the edge. She cupped her hands and dipped them in the water to fill them and brought it to her lips. However, before she could make sure it really was safe to drinking a cry from farther up the river startled her before there was a pink blur and a jet of water just barely passed her without incident. Still, the sudden threat of attack made her jump back; this in turn made the trainer slip ungracefully into the shallow end of the river with a splash.

Sputtering and spitting, Sakura lifted herself out of the water to just catch the tumble of the small pink blob that was send flying by some kind of water attack. The pink head lifted itself off the muddy ground, a tired and bruised grimace on its round face. It had a bulbous crown atop its head and a white belly. She watched it shake off the damage its body received from its unknown attacker and stretch its body far longer than it really was before its form snapped back to its default size.

Yellow rimmed black eyes blinked up at her then and unsure about what exactly just happened, Sakura blinked back.

The small creature tilted its round head before glancing back upstream. She supposed the pokemon didn't see what it was looking for since it turned back to Sakura then slithered its way towards the river's edge. Sakura watched it stop next to her with an uncertain look. Realizing it must want a drink, the trainer waved her hand at it, hoping it understood it had nothing to fear from her. They seemed to have a somewhat mutual understanding and as the slug looking pokemon bent down to drink Sakura ignored her drenched clothes and turned around to take a drink as well.

It was fresh water after all and with a happy sound Sakura turned back to land to grab her thermos.

There was an unmistakable growl from behind her then and she froze, unsure what type of pokemon was behind her or how dangerous it was. The pink pokemon at her side didn't seem too thrilled either and the frown was back on its elastic face. The pokemon made a high pitched noise and spat out mud.

Whatever it was behind her didn't seem to like that too much as it made a threatening noise of its own over the slashing water. Not wanting to stay to close, Sakura took her chance to jump out of the river and grab her poke ball, ready to release Budew at a moment's notice.

In the water was a fish pokemon about the length of her torso with colors splitting it between a violent looking red and a deep blue, its tail fin was a pop of yellow. It splashed in the water as it tries to shake the mud away from its eyes that had been sealed shut after the slug pokemons hit struck true. The human took that time to make sense of what was going on before getting to her feet and running to her bag to pull out the pokedex. She pointed it towards the two opposing pokemon and their scans came back quickly.

**Shellos [West Sea]: Its shape and coloration vary depending on its habitat. Beware pushing too strongly on its squishy body, it tends to ooze an odd purple liquid researchers believe to be a defense mechanism against predators.**

**Carvanah: Carvanah lives in packs in rivers, their strongly developed jaws and fangs pack the destructive power to tear out the hulls of ships and sink them. Carvanah are very territorial and will attack on sight.**

"Oh…well, I guess that explains one thing." Sakura furrowed her brow at the sight of the Shellos being splashed aggressively by the violent pokemon. She and shellos both must be in that carvanah's territory. Putting the dex away and picking up her bag, Sakura decided it was best if she went a little farther downstream to get water.

The shellos, however, seemed quite adamant about getting a drink specifically in this part of the river. Sakura felt a little worried about leaving the pokemon to fight off a pokemon that was much bigger than itself.

"Sakura!"

Jumping at the sudden call of her name, the pink haired girl turned her back to the escalating fight at the river edge just in time to see Naruto leading Sasuke to her. The black haired trainer had an impatient scowl across his features. Brows furrowed, she had almost forgot that they were waiting for her.

"Oh, hey guys, guess I kept you waiting huh?" she held a hand to her hip as the two boys found themselves by her. Sasuke's Murkrow flew off the branches over head just then to return to its poke ball.

"What's taking you, you said you were getting water." Sasuke frowned.

"Yeah…then this kind of happened." She waved a hand down at her dripping clothes and tormented shellos not a handful of yards away being pelted with river water from an aggressively angry fish.

"Whoa, they're really going at it." Naruto commented.

"Yeah...But I kind of want to get that little shellos out of there, it just wants a drink, but that carvanah is really territorial." She explained.

"Eh, then catch one of them." Naruto shrugged an moved his pointing finger from one to the other. The look she gave Naruto like he just dropped a bombshell made the blond snort. That's right…she could catch it. She could, couldn't she…somehow she didn't feel so confident she'd be able to get it away from its fight with the other water type though. Or she would just distract it long enough for that other pokemon to land a dirty blow.

In the midst of her thoughts was when Sasuke stepped up with a pointed look.

"Why not just leave the carvanah to me." He shrugged. Pursing her lips it didn't take her long to agree. Nodding, Sakura release budew and Sasuke his cotonee. The two grass types looked up at their trainers, though cotonee's looked seemed to emote more annoyance than anything.

"Budew, get shellos away from carvanah." The female trainer pointed out the pink slug just a tad larger than budew. It blinked up and sent a determined smile in the direction of its target.

"Just attack carvanah." Sasuke sent a pointed look at his own grass type who flapped its leafy appendages as confirmation. Sakura send one last look Sasuke's way, still a little unsure about battling by him. The dark eyed teen opted to ignore her though and commanded an energy ball attack towards the water.

The cotton ball drifted higher into the air as it gathered green energy over its forehead before releasing it to land just slightly off target. The water came up in a tall geyser. Sakura decided not to watch for too long, else she miss her chance and herded her own targeted pokemon away from the water with the aid of budew's bullet seed.

Yellow rimmed eyes looked up at her in surprise before eyeing up her pokemon and let out a challenging cry. Budew gave her own and attacked with a volley of bright seeds. Under the bright sun shellos's body glimmered just before the bullet seed hit. However, there was nothing but the high pitched sound of multiple little seeds hitting a hard, solid surface and bouncing off to either side.

When budew was out of seeds to attack with the mud was disturbed as a ring of water blasted towards her. Unable to move fast enough, the attack landed and sends the bulb sliding back into the mud. Still, it got up and charged, the glow of seeds building in her mouth.

Sakura told her pokemon to head to the pokemons' side. Easily, budew obeyed, just as shellos spat out the same mud it had over carvanah's eyes at one point. Budew dodged, narrowly, then attacked its challengers side.

Shellos cried out and unable to find traction in the mud and slippery stone for its sticky underside, shellos slid back and was knocked over. With the attack cut off shortly after by Sakura's command all that was left was a heavily breathing and tired slug on its side. It shook its head once then glanced up at budew and then to Sakura with big blinking eyes.

Sakura opened her mouth, but unsure what she would have said, promptly closed it. On Naruto's excited behest, she drove her hand into her bag and produced a red and white poke ball. Her heart thumping madly, the trainer threw the ball in the direction of her target.

Shellos watched the course of the device and let out a cry that was neither bitter nor fearful. Red light surrounded the pokemon before it was reverted back into the poke ball. It twitched maybe twice before confirmation was made, the blinking red warning light ceased and shellos was caught.

A bright smile broke out of her as budew jumped up in down in victory. With her heart still beating wildly in her chest she ran up to grab the poke ball. It was dirty now from the mud, but it was warm with life and that just excited the newbie trainer all the more. Turning back to the boys she caught the tail end of Sasuke beaching the carvanah with a storm of razor leaves.

Sasuke chucked a poke ball of his own and successfully caught the offending pokemon. He picked up his new catch to wipe off the mud and faced Sakura who lifted her own new catch with a happy grin. He didn't bother to comment and turned to walk back to the trail they had left. Sakura rolled her eyes and joined Naruto in the walk back as he cheered and griped all at once wishing he had caught a pokemon now too.

* * *

 

Despite Sasuke's earlier displeasure about arriving in Tani's small town during the night, it wasn't until late after ten that the traveling trainers left the cover of the forest of their home province of Fire for open fields and growing valleys and rivers. The providence where the next town was located was a small respite before the climate became harsh with heat and sun and grass and trees disappeared altogether. That was where the arid deserts of Wind started.

In spite of the late hour, Sakura was sure the Uchiha could still be thankful none of them were in the desert province just yet.

"Hey guys! You gotta come see this." Naruto called over to the two lagging behind on the trail. Sakura lifted her weary head and covered her mouth as she yawn pitifully. They hadn't stopped too much since she and Sasuke acquired new pokemon. A part of her was regretting that.

In all honesty, she and Naruto agreed to skip out on a dinner break because they wanted to make sure Sasuke didn't try and make the rest of the trip without at least short breaks to grab an energy bar from her bag. She was sure that if he had really been completely alone, the dark haired youth would have ignored all hunger if it got him closer to the next town.

Beside her, she heard the dark haired boy groan in annoyance.

"Might as well check whatever it is out…if only to shut him up." She interjected.

"It's too damn late for him to be yelling like that." The youth hissed, she could tell he was trying very hard not to give a sympathy yawn. With a huff he pulled her along up the steep hill Naruto had situated himself on and pointed down to the sight below.

Through her bleary vision, Sakura looked up from her feet only to be assaulted by a vast night sky, clear and cloudless. Its dark canvas speckled with stars and a moon so big and bight it looked like an opal floating in the vast emptiness of space. Below, the road curved down the hill and to the right of a lake so clear and dark it reflected the night scape laid out before the young trainers. In the distance was the town they were heading for, lights twinkling like glitter or stars that fell to earth. Farther, in the distance behind the town where hills that faded the farther they went, swallowed by the darkness of night.

The three were so silent as they stared down at their destination. Sakura heard Sasuke's sharp intake of breath and Naruto's barely contained words of awe. Because really, what could a person say to what they were looking at right this second.

"Its breath taking…" she murmured after some time. No one could argue with that.

"Yeah…" the boys murmured together and without another word the three started their careful decent down the hill, too afraid too much noise could ruin such a sight.


	11. A Rivalry Revisited

Eyes still shielded by dark bangs so that the sunlight streaming from the window behind him could not irritate them further, refused to acknowledge it was even there. Mornings were the bane of his existence right now. He and the other two hadn't even dragged their tired bodies into the pokemon center until it was close enough to midnight that he was sure none of them would wake up until well after lunch.

Clearly though, that wasn't going to happen if the throbbing of his eye lids had anything to do about. Sasuke reach out behind him to grab an extra pillow from the other side of the bed to hold over his head and block out the light. However, something else that was not the fluffy safety of a pillow caught his hand. Instead it tangled his fingers up in soft, tendrils that when tugged lightly in annoyance released a sleepy grunt. Sasuke, needing a moment to understand this in his sleepy haze turned his head to the curled up vision of the pink haired girl asleep on the opposite end of the bed.

He felt his eye twitch as he wondered what she was doing on his bed until the sound of an obnoxious snore from the floor started to pull away the sleep still clinging to him. Rubbing his eyes, Sasuke pushed himself into a sitting position and peered over Sakura to find Naruto sprawled across the floor with the only freaking blanket in the room.

No wonder he woke up cold, he huffed to himself and leaned back on his side of the bed. Tiredly, he stretched, with him up now it would be impossible to get back to sleep so might as well start waking up. On Sakura's side of the bed, the lone girl of the trio buried her face in her pillow and turned onto her stomach.

Now that he recalled, the three of them arrived so bone tired at the pokemon center that the first room the night shift Chansey beckoned them to was like an Arceus sent miracle. Too exhausted all three of them collapsed onto the bed. Sometime during the night the idiot must have fallen off the bed.

Feeling around the floor for his shoes he had to admit, at least the girl wasn't the snuggling type and stayed on her side of the bed.

It was as he tired the laces to his shoes that the figure on the bed stretched and popped until she brushed bed head out of her eyes to wish Sasuke a drowsy 'good morning' and went on a search for wherever she threw her red camisole and boots.

Sasuke gave her a muttered greeting at the least and stood up to kick the blond on the floor lightly.

"You think breakfast is still being served?" he glanced over to the female trainer with an unlaced boot in her hand as she stooped on her hands and knees to look under the bed. She gave a noncommittal grunt before looking up at him with her big green eyes.

"Dunno, what time is it?" she waved her hand at their bags and noticed her pokedex hooked to her bag. Too lazy to fish out his own he walked over and lifted her bag to open up the device.

"…You up for lunch?" he asked.

"Why Sasuke, are you asking me out on a date? I haven't even had time to brush my hair or feed my pokemon!" the pinked haired teenager laughed at her own little joke as he crossed his arms. He was too damn tired for her stupid jokes.

"I want food." He muttered.

"And I want respect, but we all can't have everything handed to us on a silver platter." Came her snarky reply. Sasuke missed the days when the girl was too shy to say anything to him other than the occasional 'stunky-head' remark.

"I heard the mention of food!" Naruto lifted himself up with help from the bed. His grin as toothy as ever.

Sasuke groaned and walked out of the room to wait for his unwanted companions. Because he just knew if he didn't and went off to the cafeteria without them, Naruto in particular would make it his life's goal to make the consumption of his brunch the most annoying experience ever.

It was a short wait surprisingly before they opened the door and Sakura threw him a questioning look at the fact he was still there, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pants pockets. He blinked down at her and shrugged silently before turning on heel and leading the way to the front lobby where the glass door let warm early afternoon sun stream into the bright room.

A Chansey was busying itself with handling a trainer's pokemon and taking them to the back for a check-up. One of the human nurses on call was talking with a few other trainers as the Gothorita next to them rubbed its head.

Just as Sasuke turned away to where a plaque on a wall pointed in the direction of the dining area the front doors made that automatic whooshing sound when they opened.

"No way, Forehead girl!? What are you doing here?!" Gasped a loud feminine voice from behind them. Sasuke scowled at the level of noise after waking up so soon and turned back to see Sakura frozen in place with a very uncomfortable expression on her face.

* * *

 

Sakura sat in tense silence, trapped in the booth seat between an oblivious Naruto chatting away with the two other guys sitting with their table of six and a very, very aggravated Sasuke who looked like he was one second away from running out on them.

She wouldn't blame him either. Ino had that effect on people when she started talking about herself.

Sakura knew at some point in time she was bound to run into Ino during her travels. They went to school for this sort of thing, but she thought she had more time. More time to prove she could hold out on her own without the aid of another. She didn't think the blond would have started out roughly the same time as her. She even brought her friends with her.

Somehow, Sakura felt like that was cheating since the other female trainer had talked so big about Sakura not being able to travel alone. Ino always was a hypocrite at heart, Sakura twitched her fingers nervously around the pokeballs she held in her hand under the table. She could practically feel the contraption holding Budew vibrate worriedly for her trainer.

Ino had always talked big back at the academy when they were younger, and always mocked Sakura when she admitted to being unable to see things her way. In school the other girls would crowd around Ino, because she always did have that aura that just demanded the attention of her peers even when she really didn't deserve it. She would hold her accomplishments over everyone's head and always zero in on the one girl who didn't join in on the flattery. Namely herself.

Sakura hated attention, and Ino knew this well.

When Sakura woke up this afternoon meeting up with Ino and her little entourage was the last thing she expected to happen. A somewhat quite breakfast with these two boys she's been traveling with, some light conversation and maybe plans to see what they could by at the local grocery store food wise before they really tried to decide to split up permanently. She did not, however, expect another loud mouth blond to burst into the pokemon center and pinpoint her out of all the other patrons and shout out her embarrassing academy nickname all the girl use to taunt her with.

How she loathed the shallowness of little girls in that singular moment of time when she found herself tensing up in the middle of the lobby for all to stop and stare at.

It was an easy matter for embarrassed pin pricks to sting her eyes and warn of tears before she notice a disgruntled Sasuke and confused Naruto to turn around. The teenager quickly made sure to rub her camisole over her eyes to roughly wipe any evidence of possible tears before turning stiffly to the front doors just as they closed.

Her blond tormentor had stood there with two familiar classmates on either side of her. They hadn't looked up to see why Ino had made such a commotion with her yelling and dramatic pointing. The two with her would have been use to her personality by then. Shikamaru and Chouji had grown up around her and each other's family.

Sakura hadn't wanted to say anything to her blond rival, not that she could what with how her jaw had unhinged itself and made her gap openly like a Magicarp out of water. Ino had looked at her with such a look as she talked about what a coincidence their meeting was before forcing herself and her friends into their lunch time.

"So how did a bookworm like you convince Sasuke of all people to travel with you?" Ino snorted as she held her chin in her hand, her annoying voice breaking Sakura out of her thoughts.

Sasuke glared down at her and she gulped. She didn't need him to speak to know he was telling her not to make him a topic of this stupid conversation. Sighing, she brought a hand to her face.

"I met Naruto and him trying to kick each other's butt in the forest outside Konoha. Naruto was the only one with a map so we just kinda stuck together." Sakura informed simply before glancing up into Ino's clear blue eyes. She looked down her nose and Sakura, it made the pink haired girl frown.

"Really? You didn't like, bribe him or something?" she mocked. Beside the other girl the brown haired Shikamaru turned away from his conversation with Chouji and Naruto to give Ino a warning look. He was promptly ignored. Sakura threw her hands into the air.

"With what Ino?! All the money I do have is for emergencies and if you couldn't tell already I have nothing to work with if I wanted to charm my way into someones good graces—"

"You got that right…" Ino had muttered off-handedly and Sakura glared.

"Look, the only reason the three of us are together is just sheer chance. No bribing, no stupid reasons, and not because their's some kind of imaginary love triangle going on that you can gossip about to your little friends that visit the flower shop. Get over yourself Ino-Pig!"

The offended look Ino gave her was enough for the normally reserved Sakura to smile a sweet, triumphant grin as she crossed her arms. The two stared down at each other while their table quieted into awkward silence.

Chouji stopped mid chew of his potato chips to cast an uncomfortable look between Shikamaru and Naruto who seemed to try and slide away from Sakura and her eyebrows made a downward turn into a frown.

Sasuke raised his brow at his female traveling partner, never seeing her so strung up.

"…Yeah well…I bet I caught more pokemon than you did Forehead Girl!" Ino challenged. Hands slammed down on the table as Sakura groaned in disbelief.

"Are you serious right now? Are you trying to make a competition out of everything? What for, I don't even like you?!" she seethed under her breath.

"Because I like to make sure everyone knows I'm better than them. Especially you, Sakura." The blond point a painted nail at the other trainer.

"Is this because I didn't fawn over you like all the other girls in our class or something? Because really?" she was desperately looking for any opening to escape from now as she cast Sasuke a look of total desperation for him to move his butt so she could shimmy her way out of her seat and out the closest window. However, he simple made it painfully clear that if he had to suffer through this pointless argument as a bystander, then she had to suffer through it as the actual participant.

"I just wanted to start this day with a nice lunch and find out where to head to next…maybe play with my new pokemon for a bit…" Sakura sighed.

"Don't I get a break after what happened in Taizaku Gai with the gambling ring?" she pleaded with herself. Ino gave her a weird look before smirking down at her.

"Oh? What a coincidence, I just got a new pokemon too and she is just the cutest thing."

"Don't start with me Ino, just let me wallow in my own pity."

"Nah, I have a better idea. How about you and me recreate your fabulous defeat at my hands just like that time in Konoha before you left." Ino challenged. This perked up her two boys as they looked down at her with questioning gazes.

"I thought you said you didn't like to battle?" Sasuke frowned.

"I was trying to prove a point." Sakura shot back with a hurt flinch.

"That you were better than her?" Naruto ventured with a curious grin. Sakura shook her head and made it a point to slouch in her seat defensively.

"I…I just wanted to prove I didn't have to pick fights to be strong…independent…that's all." She muttered.

Naruto blinked before the sourness of his friends' mood really sunk in and his grin dropped. He remembered that morning when he watched her running down the street, pokemon in her arms and a defeated expression.

Sasuke stared back down at her, a stony expression on his own face. Obviously, her running into him that one time before he left was her suffering a massive defeat in the name of proving herself then. Suddenly, just a little more understanding went into his dark eyes and he sighed in disapproval.

"Obviously it didn't go that well then?" he mumbled towards her, he watched her slide down lower in her seat.

"So?" Ino leaned in at this point, a gloating gleam in her eye. Sasuke was starting to like her less now. She had made her point, now she was just rubbing it in.

"Come on Sakura, you're loads better than you were weeks ago!" Naruto piped up. "I bet you could wipe the floor with her now!" he reassured. Sakura smiled ruefully at her friend with the shake of her head.

"No Naruto…I probably couldn't."

"You said you just wanted to travel and grow stronger with your pokemon." Sasuke finally spoke up. His voice startled Sakura and actually made her straighten up. "Getting stronger means facing crappy obstacles…like her—"

"Hey!"

"You'll have to face her again at some point Sakura, so just get over it now and deal with it."

Sakura looked like she wanted to say 'but, but, but', however, she firmly shut her mouth at the sight of Sasukes narrowed eyes as he jutted his thumb in the offending blond trainer.

She stayed quiet for a long time as she turned to the pokeballs settled on her lap. When she finally heaved a sigh she smiled at the boys at her side.

"Your pep talks kind of suck Stunky-Head…" she grinned.

'Stunky-Head' scowled at her before he smirked.

"I just find you more bearable to deal with than other blond haired cretins." He shrugged.

"Hey!"

Sakura wasn't entirely sure which blonds at the table he was talking about as both Naruto and Ino glared daggered at the Uchiha. But she would let it slide as she laughed anyways. In a way…she thinks she just got a complement from the dower boy and she was going to milk this confidence boost for all it was worth.

"Tomorrow morning, Forehead Girl." Ino challenged her. "There's a training stadium for town tournaments in town square, don't be late."

"I was the one with perfect attendance during school Ino." Sakura reminded.

Challenge accepted.


	12. Cat Fight

"What's with you and Ino anyways?" Naruto asked from where he pet his snoozing vulpix in his arms. After the tense meeting with Ino and an awkwardly rushed lunch, the trio rushed out into town for some shopping.

"I really don't know to be honest." Sakura shrugged. Budew hopped along behind her while her new Shellos draped over her shoulder curiously.

Sasuke, from beside her snorted. Murcrow flapped his wings as its trainer unbalanced him on his shoulder. Cotonee floated over head lazily.

Sakura glanced over at him with a cross look before turning back to the sidewalk to look for the local grocery. Right now she wanted nothing more than to just worry about restocking her Budew's favorite poke-food and then getting some for Shellos. This whole thing with Ino, this battle she had inevitably been challenged to, then goaded into excepting because of Sasuke being an ass and Naruto being himself, and both cheering for her victory in their own special way. Sure it was nice, and while she was still floating on cloud nine about the whole 'facing her problems' thing, once Sakura cooled off enough to think more clearly she realized just how bad she was digging her own grave.

She was not ready for a battle with Ino. Budew may be ready for her, but she's only battled with Shellos once and that was to actually catch him.

Sighing for the umpteenth time since the confrontation earlier in the afternoon the young trainer looked up to see what part of town they had ended up in so far.

Tanigakure was a wonderfully scenic town hidden in a valley that had a beautiful lake outside of town. There was little to no pollution, Naruto mention that it was probably because Tani was in in River province which was mostly a collection of conservation land for Pokemon.

The buildings all had this clean cut, solar powered look to it that was all new age and put as little stress of the environment as possible. There was a decent population, mostly full of conservationists and other researchers. It was a town of scholars in its own right.

A local police officer that was directing traffic on the cross walk held up a stop sign to their part of the street as an Ampharos wearing a matching reflective vest waved its glowing tail jewel and waved its arms for halted traffic to move.

Sasuke squinted at something across the street as they waited for traffic to go their way as he pointed at a building a few blocks away.

"Found the store." He informed. The tail glow from the Ampharos turned to another cross walk as the officer turned his own sign to indicate they could cross the street. They headed towards the building Sasuke spotted moments before.

* * *

 

With fresh supplies now packed into their bags and their pokemon successfully fed Naruto suggested they check out the tournament fields in town square. He reasoned the only way to prepare for a battle it to actually battle and he was dead set on picking a fight with Sakura's new Shellos, much to her usual reluctance.

It was located somewhere in the middle of the town park, two chalk outlined rectangles with bleachers surrounding them. It was official looking with an electric score board at one end with an old judges table.

"I wonder if they hold contests here too and not just tournaments." Sakura wondered off handedly. The boys shrugged.

"Enough wondering, come on Sakura, let's see what Shellos can do!" Naruto lifted if Vulpix over his head in excitement, earning a startled bark from the fox pokemon. She kicked the back of her trainers head with a back paw and he let out a similar yelp.

"It's too late to run right?" Sakura turned to Sasuke for aid, but the boy crossed his arms with a glare.

"She's annoying, so you are going to kick her ass."

"So, yes." Sakura groaned as she set Shellos on the ground and walked over to the other side of the rectangle. Shellos followed with a giddy sort of look as its back wings flapped elatedly. Sakura eyed Naruto who gave her a bright grin and thumbs up.

"You'll do fine Sakura, and you'll show Ino what you're made of! I'm sure of it!" He cheered. Vulpix barked in challenge while Shellos gave a toothless smile, wriggling its boneless form. The pink haired trainer smiled nonetheless, it was hard not to with friends like these.

"Shellos, Mud-slap!" Let the training begin.

* * *

 

It was early evening by the time the boys were pleased with training her and her pokemon in the art of kicking ass. After the first fight with Naruto and his defeat since she had the type advantage Sasuke allowed them to recover before sicking his oddly aggressive Cottonee on her and Shellos.

Sakura wasn't too sure if she had really improved much in the ways of battling prows, both her pokemon lost to Sasuke's after all. But they did talk with her about the things she could improve on.

She over thinks her strategies, she hesitates before deciding on a move to use, she leaves her pokemon too open, just a few to list the many things she needed to improve on in her battle with Ino tomorrow.

The trio walked into the center as the door opened, the female trainer took the lead to the nurse. The pokemon on call this time was not a Chansey, but an Audino. The nurse greeted them softly while the Audino looked up at her with these Deerling-like eyes that made Sakura just melt as she handed her and her companions' pokeballs. The nurse said their check up will be completed in about twenty minutes and told them to make themselves comfortable.

With a collective sigh, the trio made themselves comfortable on a wall length couch off to the side of the front desk.

"You guys didn't hold back, I'm surprised Shellos didn't just turn into a pile of goo after the training you gave us." Sakura groaned as she kicked off her boots, hey, they had a room in the center she was going to go shoe-less now whether it was polite or not.

On one side, Sasuke leaned his back against the back of the couch and grunted.

"You needed it." He pointed out simply.

"Admit it, you started smiling a little at the end." Naruto yawned. Sakura snorted, okay, maybe it got a little fun when she started noticing the habits both Naruto and Sasuke had while battling. The observations had helped her land a few blows before her untimely defeat.

"Okay…so, it wasn't that bad, I certainly improved, and I think Budew and Shellos were really excited about learning all they could. Thanks guys, you two are the best." She sighed leaning her head back and giving the boys a tired grin. Naruto grinned back, while Sasuke sent a silent smirk her way.

The trio kept to themselves in the quite buzz of the center as the occasional trainer or nurse pokemon passed by. By the ten minute mark though, the doors whooshed open and a familiar teenager wandered in. His droopy eyes noticed them and walked over. Naruto noticed him first and raised a hand to wave at him.

"Yo, Shikamaru, what's up?" he greeted as the lazy trainer took a seat next to the blond. They shrugged.

"Ino's been dragging Chouji and I all around town and I finally escaped." He shrugged. "You guys?"

"Teaching Sakura how to kick ass!" Naruto grinned.

"Eloquently put." Said girl muttered. Shikamaru glanced over at her with a raised brow.

"Oh yeah, and how'd that go?"

"My butt was successfully kick." She pointed out.

There was a lull in the conversation after that and Sakura wondered if she should say anything more.

"Hey Shikamaru? Why is Ino on my case? We barely use to say two words to each other at the Academy."

The brown haired boy shrugged.

"Ino isn't that difficult of a person to get, she acts like a bitch and is usually too prideful to admit when she means well, you two use to hang when you were younger though, right?" he brought up. Sakura tilted her head in thought, thinking back to the years before she entered the school. She nodded.

"Yeah, we liked to play with each other often, I'm not entirely sure why we drifted apart though, I think we were just too different by the time we entered school that we just drifted, you know?" she explained.

"I honestly doubt someone like Ino is being a bitch around without some reason on her part. If I feel up to it, I'll figure out her weirdo reasoning…" Shikamaru offered as he stood. The door opened at some point and someone called out to the lazy trainer. "Eh, till then, good luck with your fight tomorrow Sakura." He waved to the trio before walking off to join his own friends as they started down the hall to the rented rooms.

Sakura blinked curiously and waved bye to him as he walked down the hall. It had never crossed her mind that there could ever be some kind of ulterior motive to Ino's attitude towards her. She frowned in thought.

Lost in her thoughts she hadn't seen the boys get up to retrieve their pokemon until her pokeballs were dropped onto her lap. Green eyes blinked, startled before glancing up to Naruto and Sasuke who was already grabbing their stuff.

"Come on Sakura, I'm hungry, you can think about whatever later." The blond rubbed his belly with an impatient look. The trainer rolled her eyes, but joined her companions towards the cafeteria either way.

Dinner was a mostly quite affair for the three, Sasuke being one of few words and Sakura being too absorbed in her thoughts about tomorrow; Naruto was just too hungry to bother. Before she knew it, the three were finished, their pokemon were fed and it was off to their single bed down the hall.

Again, too worn out to really argue, Sasuke chucked a pillow and spare blanket at Naruto and told him to sleep on the floor. Sakura crossed her arms, straight up refusing to sleep on said floor and eventually convinced the Murkrow trainer to just make a barrier out of a rolled up blanket.

Sakura fell asleep to the soft breathing of Sasuke behind her and the snores coming from Naruto on the floor.

* * *

 

It was the morning of Ino's challenge as Sakura was stuck in the bathroom after calling first dibs. Budew and Shellos enjoyed the morning dip in warm water while Sakura eyed the little sprouts popping out of Budew's water when she should have been washing her hair.

A knock on the door startled the girl from her train of thought and she could hear a muffled Naruto telling her they would save her some breakfast. Honestly, she didn't think she could stomach anything, the anticipation and anxiety was winding her body up like a spring. She was sure, any second now the spring inside her would tighten no more and she'd all but burst.

Sakura got dressed in a spare outfit she bought yesterday along with the boys. They had all agreed they needed to wash their current clothes and having a spare outfit laying around in their bag was better than not having on if something happened to their current clothes. One pair of black leggings that went down to her ankles, a pair of shorts and long sleeved, bright red v-neck later and she was slipping on her boots with her pokeballs hooked to her shorts. The mini clothes dryer provided in the room was still going when she left.

It was easy enough to find her boys, just look for the loudest table with the most miserable black haired teenager sitting in it. She gave Sasuke an apologetic look to which he just glared darkly at her.

"Why did you take so long." He muttered.

"Budew started sprouting and I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing." She shrugged. Naruto told her good morning and asked if she was ready to bring on the pain while shoving a plate piled high with breakfast foods. She laughed awkwardly.

She really didn't want to dish out any pain.

Poking around on her plate she found a few strawberries buried under some oddly placed biscuits and gravy. Weird taste, but at least fruit won't sit in her stomach like a mountain of cinder blocks.

"What kind of pokemon does Ino have?" Sasuke asked after a while. Sakura swallowed a slice of melon before answering.

"When I first fought her we both only had one pokemon each. Hers was a Wismur, I don't know how many she has now…she mentioned catching a new one before though so she could have anything." She shrugged mostly to herself.

"Should of asked Shikamaru yesterday." He pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I was busy." Sakura muttered as she let Naruto pull out a piece of toast from the pile on her plate.

With the plate successfully picked of anything either of the three would eat they checked the time and head out to town square once again. Mostly though they just dragged the pink haired girl to the cat fight that was sure to ensue once she made her presence known.

Ino was there, already on her feet on one side of the field, pokeball in hand. Shikamaru and Chouji waved the boys over as Sakura eyed the blonde girl dubiously before sighing heavily. Naruto pat her hard on the back. She stumbled and looked up at him with an unsure expression.

"You'll do great Sakura, you have to be the smartest girl I know so I'm sure any strategy you come up with will knock her socks off!" He reassured her. She smiled gratefully at him and nodded. She took her place. Ino immediately jumped into the rules.

"It'll be a one on one battle! I got two pokemon so that'll be the max pokemon used, good with you Forehead-Girl?" the blue eyed trainer held up two pokeballs, one in either hand. Sakura unhooked Budews ball from her pants first and held it in her fist before facing Ino.

"Fine with me…Ino-Pig." She nodded.

"Let's start this then!"

Both girls threw their capsules into the air, beams of light release and dove towards the ground. Wismur and Budew formed in the lights place, they cried out as soon as they saw each other.

Ino didn't waste her time and Wismur came rushing at Budew with a tackle. Sakura didn't even think, she countered with Budew's bullet seed. It hit close to home and sent the pink creature barreling onto its back.

"To its side, Budew." Sakura told her pokemon. The barrage of seeds stopped for only a moment as the bud hopped to its challengers side, but it was enough of an open window for Ino's pokemon to hop back to its feet and blast the grass type with a powerful blast from uproar.

Sakura flinched as her pokemon was knocked back into a mid air flip. She ran through possible ways Budew could land, all painful.

"Budew, leach seed, hold onto the spouting vines!" She suggested. Budew balanced itself and opened its bulb, swiftly clamping it back down before the seed itself could fly away. The seed cracked and its vines shot through the sound wave, latching onto its victim and dragging Budew with it.

From the bleachers Naruto cheered. Ino grit her teeth when Wismurs uproar was interrupted by its startled cry as vines wrapped around its ears, it shook at its binds as they shocked the energy from it.

Budew stumbled back to the earth and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief that it worked. The seed, however, tugged out of Budew's grasp. It was inconsequential and she gave Budew to orders to attack with another bullet seed, it did just that, hitting Ino's startled pokemon head on.

The force knocked Wismur back off its feet before it got back up quickly enough.

"Supersonic!" Ino called out. Another sound wave, weaker and too high frequency to hear left Wismur's mouth and hit.

Sakura bit her lip as Budew shut its eyes in an attempt to shut out the sound waves. However, it was for not, she blinked and blinked, a dazed, dizzy look coming over the green bulb.

"Budew!" Sakura called out. The pokemon chirped confusedly, its steps uneven as she stumbled. Wismur and Ino took that as their chance and tackled her pokemon off its unsteady footing. The grass type cried out as it hit the ground and Ino called out to Wismur, a pound attack. Wismur jumped up, high into the air, carried back down by its weight and onto Budew. Sakura cried out, calling for Budew to dodge, but knew it would be futile with her partner wobbling unsteadily.

"Poison powder! Poison powder, Budew, now!" She commanded in a rush just as Wismurs feet made contact with her downed pokemon. Sakura cringed. But by some form of Arceus brought, the bulb at the top of Budew's head popped open and Wismur breathed in a cloud of purple spores. A shock from the previous leach seed made Wismur flinch, but Budew was still dazed and confused, unable to attack faithfully.

Ino waited for the effects of the leach seed to subside before Wismur was ready to attack again, just as Sakura's pokemon found its footing once more and looked somewhere towards the sky. Again, Wismur tackled Budew into the dirt then hit from the distance with a loud uproar. Sakura clamped her hands over her ears. She watch as Budew, in her condition didn't stand a chance and landed at her feet out cold. Wismur, though still under the effects of both leach seed and poison powder breathed heavily, but was still the victor in the first battle.

Sakura pursed her lips in defeat and returned her pokemon to its pokeball and took hold of her second one. She watched as Wismur flinch, its cheeks tinged with purple. It wouldn't last as long after the effects Budew forced onto it. Inhaling, Sakura furrowed her brow and decided a succession of quick, far ranged attacks would deal with Wismur easily.

She threw her second pokeball free.

"Shellos, water pulse!" she commanded as her tiny pink slug pokemon formed into existence. Without question, Shellow found its opponent quickly. Moisture from the air around Shellos gathered at its open mouth, Ino's weakened Wismur didn't have the time to recover and dodge before the little slugs revenge hit head on and knocked it back to the ground. Wismur grunted, but fainted before it even got to its feet.

Sakura blinked. Whoa, one hit. She watched as an equally slack jawed Ino returned her pokemon before an annoyed frown marred her fine features.

She returned her Wismur into its pokeball and sent out her second Pokemon. Big, sky blue eyes blinked from their side of the field as it puffed out its cheeks in determination. It was a Jigglypuff.

Sakura let out a breath as she thought of what she could do, Shellos was unable to move fast, it would be a stationary battle the rest of the way unless she found a way to move her pokemon far distances in one sudden movement. For now, she was unsure. It was dangerous for her to be unsure, but she would have to trust Shellos's durability until a solution came to her.

"Try getting out of this one Sakura. Jigglypuff, rollout." Ino challenged. The pink ball expanded in size before shooting out onto a path straight towards Shellos.

Sakura scowled.

"Water pulse, hit that jigglypuff before it hit you!" she told Shellos, who nodded in agreement. One ball of water, then another was released making a path towards the rolling ball. But right before either could hit, Jigglypuff made two quick, sharp turns, the water pulse attacks crashed into the ground behind it. The rolling pokemon grazed Shellos the first time, its pliable body stretched with the friction, yet it seemed unaffected on a whole.

Shellos turned its boneless neck to watch behind it as Jigglypuff rolled around it, rearing up for another attack. Sakura was ready this time.

"Mud-slap again Shellos, on the ground. Trip that Jigglypuff up."

Pink cheeks expanded then as told and spat mud at the ground I a line as Ino's pokemon rolled on, unaware. The mud coated the ground around the coastal slug like shallow moat. Just as the pokemon rolled over it, it slipped, the rollouts continuous rhythm interrupted as Jigglypuff was forced to stop it's attack as it slipped in the mud.

Ino huffed.

"Dirty trick!" she argued.

"It's mud Ino, of course it's dirty." Sakura shrugged, Shellos's body twisted in the direction its head stopped in and stared down the mud covered challenger. It grinned toothlessly.

"Mud-slap, again." Sakura nodded, ignoring Ino's disgusted noises. Shellos's cheeks expanded again, except, something was different. Green eyes widened, confused as her pokemons mouth was forced open, instead of the usual attack, the mud had condensed into a dense ball.

Shellos's black eyes gleamed and shot it out towards his opponent. Jigglypuff gasped and when the ball hit, the field was caught in a ground shaking explosion. Their three man audience cried out in confusion.

Sakura and Ino turned to each other as if the other had answers as to what the fudge just happened with that attack. Ino shrugged, thankfully, Shikamaru decided it was a reasonable time to shout as the smoke from the explosion cleared.

"Did you set of a mud bomb on purpose, or was that completely by chance?"

"I didn't even know Shellos knew that move!?" Sakura gasped out.

"Whatever it was, do it again, it was awesome!" Naruto waved his arms around wildly. Sakura snorted as the two girls focused back at the clearing smoke. The grin on Sakura's face dropped though when it was revealed Jigglypuff was no longer in the mud. In fact, she'd all but disappeared, until Ino shouted in victory and looked up to where right over Shellos's head, Jigglypuff was floating. She had expanded three times bigger and floated right up into the air to dodge the mud bomb.

"You're at my mercy now Sakura!" Ino punched a fist into the air with a victorious gleam in her bright eyes.

"Rollout, right there in the air and dive bomb that Shellos!" Ino commanded her pokemon whose large eyes turned downward in a determined look. Its body tilted itself into a spin that quickly sped up. It dropped faster and faster as it shrunk its body back into its regular size and dropped down. Shellos looked up wide eyed as its smaller body was trapped in the imposing shadow. Sakura clinched her fists, unable to figure out a way to get her pokemon out of the landing zone.

"There's nothing we can do but meet the attack with just as much force…Shellos, use Mud Bomb, meet the attack with just as much power!" Sakura pointed at the incoming attack and Shellos did as told, its jaw practically nonexistent as the mud condensed into a bigger and bigger bomb. Jigglypuff was too close; its rollout hit the mud bomb and detonated it. Another explosion rocked the earth and bleachers. Chouji and Naruto yelped as Sasuke covered his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket.

The smoke covered the battle field and both girls were forced the shut their watering eyes from the irritating smoke and wait for it to clear.

It took a few minutes; Sasuke had to release his Murkrow to help clear it all out.

Sakura looked out into the arena as did Ino to see what became of their pokemon. Sakura spotted her Shellos first.

"Shellos?" she gasped, looking closer. The pink head of Shellos lay on the ground as its body lay limp; across from it, stood an unsteady, but clearly still standing Jigglypuff.

Sakura stared down at the sight, her shoulders dropped as the situation became all too clear, all too familiar. Her legs gave out, forcing her to her knees as once again she was staring at her defeated pokemon as Ino jumped triumphantly in her victory. Jigglypuff puffed out its cheeks and turned its nose to the collapsed challenger.

Déjà vu was all that crossed Sakura's mind as she could do nothing but sit there and watch her second defeat unroll right in front of her and she was once more, left to question whether she was good enough to do this.

*prepares for possible hate* heh...uh, so this happened.


	13. The Struggles that Bug

That afternoon, Naruto and his friends packed up their stuff to get moving through to the Valley Province. If they left now they could be on the Wind Province borderline in a few days. Naruto didn't really have to speak up about sticking together any longer, somehow or another, the three just got into the habit of waiting for each other to wake up and get dressed before heading out to the cafeteria for some breakfast.

Naruto looked up from his piled up plate with furrowed brows. Sakura hadn't even touched her scrambled eggs and toast and Sasuke looked as comfortable as a guy with a Cacturn thorn stuck up his ass. He swallowed his mouth full and gave the two a wide grin, trying to ease them into actually eating something.

"Hey, come on guys! Eat up, we're going to need the energy if we're going to make the next town before Skunky-Head here decided to legit-ly ditch us, right Sakura." Naruto spoke up to the two. Sasuke's scowl only deepened and Sakura simply poked at the food on her plate.

The battle yesterday with Ino had taken its toll on the usually cheery trainer and it made Naruto uncomfortable seeing her like this. Hunched back and defeated, Naruto wanted to make her feel better, but wasn't exactly sure how at this point. And Sasuke…Naruto wasn't really sure what had his panties in a bunch, it wasn't like he lost or something.

"Sorry, Naruto…I'm just not feeling too hungry right now. I'll meet you two outside. I think I'm going to hang around Beduw and Shellos for awhile before we head out." The bright haired trainer sighed before standing to throw her half eaten breakfast away, then out the door.

Naruto watched her go with a falling smile and groaned into the table as Sasuke shortly followed her example and threw away his finished meal before heading out, leaving Naruto to grumble about the two all alone.

* * *

 

When it was unconsciously agreed with the three that now would be the best time to head out, the three starting trainers met near the edge of town where the road lead through the valley, there were hills in the distance and fertile land with lots of greenery to look forward to.

Naruto greeted the two others loudly, Sakura answered back, at least a little more life was in her eyes and for that the blond let out a sigh of relief.

"So, what's the next stop going to be?" he asked them happily.

"Since we have to pass by anyways, I was thinking Valley Village in the middle of the conservation." Sakura suggested.

"Fine with me, what about you Sasuke? Gonna stick around?" Naruto grinned up at the taller youth who gave him a pointed look. Naruto could have sworn his dark eyes flickered swiftly to Sakura and back, but that could have just been him blinking. Sasuke sighed.

"You two aren't annoying all the time…" the trainer sighed, Naruto's grin only widened as he pushed the them down the path outside of town.

"Awe gee, I didn't know you loved our company that much!" the blonde teased, Sakura snorted while Sasuke's lip jutted out in a little pout he must have tried to hid.

"S-shut up…" he hissed.

* * *

 

Ignoring the fact that the journey was more silent than usual and that it did not bother him as much as it did that Sakura hadn't at least tried to tentatively start a conversation with the confused and clearly off put Naruto, Sasuke kept his arms firmly crossed and closed off as much as possible.

He had stayed. Why had he stayed? It wasn't that he thought them all friends, no, he barely knew them and part of him didn't really want him to stick out long enough to know them. But he hadn't listened and woke up this morning to the sound of Sakura's soft breaths and Naruto's snoring on the floor and didn't sneak out to get a head start to the next province they would have to pass to reach the Wind province and its capitol.

Instead, he had been lolled into a state of calm and just changed out of the shirt he slept in and into his day clothes and waited silently until the other two awoke and all three headed to breakfast as a group. A silent, still upset about yesterday's defeat silent group.

Sasuke's jaw clenched like he was trying desperately to hold back everything he wanted to say. Sakura had lost. Massively and the not-as-annoying-as-he-first-thought girl was taking it like it was the end of life as she knew it. She had barely ate a thing and she rarely said a word and while he liked his peace and quiet, he was far too aware of the grey cloud that hung over her and in effect, him and the blond loser as well.

Sasuke wasn't worried. He just found the way she was going about this loss bothersome as all hell and he wanted her to stop. He glanced behind him at the trainer in question, looking off in some other direction through the thinning trees.

Their shoes were starting to occasionally make that gross squelching noise as the ground beneath their feet became moister. There had been more small bodies of water since they headed out and easily crossed into River province. Small ponds and rivers with well kept crossing bridges were starting to become a usual thing to cross their paths, as well as many bug and water types.

Sasuke was kind of put off that the female trainer hadn't started gasping in awe at all the wild pokemon they had been encountering as they traveled. She was completely out of it and he was so close to just loosing it and telling her to go back to normal because this silence of hers was driving him up the wall.

Turning back to the path ahead, Sasuke groaned silently, Naruto peered up at him then flicked his blue eyes towards the girl. A similar expression of uncertainty crossed his features. Sasuke stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

Neither of them knew what the hell they were supposed to do with a depressed Sakura.

Sasuke pleaded silently to any god pokemon that was listening to just let them arrive at Valley Village already so they could think of something other than the oppressing silence that surrounded them.

* * *

 

They skipped a lunch break to break Sakura out of her thoughts long enough for her to dig out granola bars for each of them to eat as they walked. It wasn't long into the evening before the river they had been following for the last three hours lead them to the welcome sign to the Valley Village Preserve and Research facility. It was the place that practically ran the small river side village since most of the money that kept the village afloat came from grants and donations to the facility to keep the small province a safe and pollution free for the pokemon, rare and not that called the place home.

The trio were winded and exhausted once more, rarely had they stopped for breaks since it was only at best a one day trip if they really tried.

Sasuke grunted as he stretched his arms into the air to hear the pop of his bones as they entered the village. A small gathering of Vivillion with several varying patterns flew over them and a Wooper grinned up at them as they passed.

He turned to his companions and scowled at their less than stellar expressions.

"Come on, let's find the Pokemon Center." He spoke after what seemed like forever. Naruto waved his hand up to him with a groan and lazy thumbs up.

"Why did we decide to make it here in one day?" he groaned. Sakura turned to the blond and finally, cracked a small smile towards him before giving Sasuke one as well in relief.

Sasuke simply shrugged and turned back around to look for their coveted destination as the sun sunk over the water logged province.


	14. Thief Amongst the Egg-Heads

"Seriously!?" Sakura gasped over the PC call with her mother as excitement bubbled up in her. Just like that all the melancholy that had overshadowed her was gone. It always put her in a fantastic mood whenever she heard news of her usually busy father.

From her side she saw her two companions jump and stare at her incredulously as she gave them an excited expression then turned back to the video feed of her mother.

"Do you know how long he said he would be staying in River Province?"

"A few days at the most, he just said he was picking up some research data for his partner before they started the trip overseas." Ayame informed with a pleased smile as her daughter bounced on the balls of her feet.

"I'm happy to see this cheered you up dear, I'm sure seeing that Ino girl so soon wasn't something you wanted."

Sakura halted in her excited bouncing to smile ruefully at her mother and sighed.

"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it though she does have the upper hand. I never participated in battles until I left Konoha so I still have a lot to learn. But next time! Next time when I know my pokemon better and we grew even stronger, I'll show her I can be just as good, if not better than her." She said with such conviction as she squeezed the phone receiver.

"I'm proud of you sweetie. I know you don't like putting Budew in harm's way, but it's best for her to stay healthy and for you to grow attached to your pokemon. And I'm sure it will help your confidence as well." Ayame told her as her own pokemon called out from somewhere in the other room.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear, it looks like Bellosom is calling me to the front desk. I was supposed to be waiting for a pregnant Persain's breeder to pick her up after work. I'll talk to you later, tell Naruto and Sasuke I said hi!" the daycare worker waved to the trainer as they bid good-bye for now. Sakura hung up the phone as the video feed went dark and faced her two friends who wer unsure what to do now that she looked back to her usual self.

"Uhhh, Sakura?" Naruto squinted as her suspiciously. "You ok?"

Sakura chuckled at them with a nod of her head.

"Yeah, I just got some news that just made my day. Looks like my dad is here at the Preservation facility and I thought if it's not too much trouble, if we could go over there to visit him."

Sasuke shrugged.

"We won't be doing much here since it's just a stop off, I don't have a problem with it."

"Neither do I, let's go!" Naruto was already out the door before she could even tell him he was going the wrong direction.

* * *

 

They came upon a simple building with large windows and a few floors in the middle of the village that looked more old timey than the more modern display used as the preservation HQ. Walking in, the front room was clean and minimalistic, most of the important things being father in and on other floors most likely as the trio walked up to a woman at the front desk working on some documents before she glanced up a them from her glasses.

"Anything I can help you with?"

"Yes, I'm here for Professor Haruno Kizashi. I heard he was here today, just tell him it's Sakura." She offered with a grin as the woman quirked her lips and set her own work down to call for the researcher in question.

It wasn't a long wait before there was an elevator ding from somewhere and a large, broad shouldered man with wild pale red hair made an appearance with a fatherly smile as he stashed a clipboard under his arm. He held out his arms as he came close and Sakura ran up to the man to be engulfed in a tight hug.

"Dad!" She laughed away the last of her negativity, much to the two teenage boys' behind her relief. The man squeezed the petite girl for a moment more before holding her at arm's length to check his daughter over with a keen eye. His soft blue eyes glanced briefly at the boys.

"Sakura! I wasn't aware you would be stopping by. Are these the boys you've been traveling with, your mother mentioned them." He asked and Sakura looked up at the towering man with a similar friendly smile.

"Yes, this is Naruto and Sasuke. Guys, this is my dad, Kizashi Haruno. He's a researcher for the Kage region's top professor, Sarutobi." The trainer grinned with a proud puff of her chest as the two boys greeted the parent in their own way. Kizashi grinned at them both and after a few more words invited the children into the building to check out an enclosure that recently had a group of Goomy residing in it to get use to being transferred to a new area.

The teenagers, of course, where excited and agreed almost instantly. Staying on the first floor, the researcher led the way down the hall as Sakura and the more vocal Naruto retailed their trip thus far.

Kizashi was appropriately displeased to hear about his daughter's kidnapping at one point.

When they get to a wall encompassing window, Kizashi points out to the outside where a makeshift marshland had been made and light purple, pokemon that reminded Sakura of her own Shellos were relaxing in the murky water. The three looked out the window in avid interest.

"You kids stay here, I got to go see if my documents have been prepared yet." Sakura's father said as he continued down the hall to turn the corner. Naruto was already too distracted and already fiddling with his pokedex to see what he could look up on the slimy looking pokemon before them.

Sasuke, though he tried not to look it, was just as interested as the only Sliggoo in the group that was crawling on top of a rock, shoved a smaller Goomy off.

So enraptured by their mild entertainment while waiting for Kizashi to return, none of the three noticed when another employee of the facility walked around the corner as they shoved some papers into a duffle bag hanging from their shoulder. The researcher looked up with a scowl though and noticed the three.

"Hey, who let a bunch of kids in here?" he spoke harshly, causing the three, who were minding their own business to jolt to attention. The less than happy looking researcher stomped over to the teenagers as Sasuke scowled. Sakura opened her mouth to say their piece as the adult raised their hand to shoo them away.

"Uh, we have permission to be here though?" Sakura furrowed her brow at the dark haired man. His green eyes glared down at them with crossed arms.

"Really? I don't see anyone here that would allow unauthorized kids down here." He challenged.

"My dad went to go pick up something, we're visiting him while he's here." Sakura answered pointedly as another man walked around the corner.

"Oh, Mr. Suzu, I didn't know you where in today." Kizashi said as he came to join the employee and trainers. Suzu, for that was the angry man's name apparently, glanced over at the other and shrugged.

"I wasn't planning to, I just came back to pick up some…papers I forgot. But enough about that, do you know who these kids are, they said they're allowed here and I want to kick them out."

The pale red haired man rubbed the back of his head.

"Ah, yeah, sorry it was so sudden, but this is my daughter and her friends. I just left them here to watch the Goomy while I pick something up." He informed then perked up as if he just remembered something.

"Oh, that reminds me, were you in the archives just now? I had some important documents I needed handed over to me before I left…but strangest thing, they don't seem to be where I was told they would be."

Suzu narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as if trying to recall at any point going into whatever room the visiting researcher was talking about. Sasuke, who was silently watching for the most part, noticed Suzu's hand grip the strap of his duffle bag before the man shook his head.

"No, someone must have miss placed them, I haven't been in the archives since yesterday."

"Huh," Kizashi scratched his chin with down turned eyebrows. "I'll ask around then." He turned to Sakura and the boys with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry to cut the visit sort Sakura, but I need to find those papers before the end of the day so I can't hang out much longer." The pink haired trainer smiled up at her dad and shook her head.

"Don't worry about it dad, you have important work to do and we need to head out soon if we want to get to the next province soon." She admitted and turned to the boys. Naruto groaned, not wanting to leave just yet because he wanted to touch a Goomy. Sasuke though, seemed to be off in his own little world as he watched Mr. Suzu leaving the hall to make his way to the front office.

The parent and child hugged and told each other good bye one more time before Sakura started leading them out of the well lit hall with doors labeled as either an office or lab.

"Sasuke?" she nudged the dark haired trainer. He broke his thoughts away and focused on the girl.

"Yeah?"

"What's up, you're kind of spacing out."

"…Sakura…do you know what kind of project your dad is working on?" he questioned impassively. But the girl shook her head in the negative.

"Nope, he's been real hush hush about it even to mom. I know it's being funded by the League though and that's about it." She informed as they waved to the receptionist then out the front doors. The two were silent for a moment as if that fact alone and Sakura's father's missing documents were more than a coincidence. And then a gurgling noise shattered that slim line of thought as they turned to Naruto who blinked and scratched at his cheek.

"What, I'm hungry, let's grab a bite to eat yeah?" he suggested.

* * *

 

The poke food was set out first and their Pokemon released pleased cries as they were all released out of their pokeballs outside.

Murkrow was the first to really dig in as well as Shellos, they other's decided stuffing their faces with food the fastest was not the way to go, so eventually, when there were two small Pokemon in mini food coma's Vulpix was almost done and satisfied. Her trainer's hand reached down from the picnic table the rest sat at for their lunch to scratch at her spin, which she arched into gladly.

Sasuke was speaking in a monotone voice through their lunch, pointing out the weird coincidence that files for a research project that was so secretive going missing. Naruto looked a bit dubious as he forked the bourbon chicken he was having before shoving it in his mouth.

Sakura seemed to more easily grasp at what Sasuke was saying, but there was still some doubt. That was how Kizashi Haruno found the teenagers a couple hours later with a worried crease between his brow. Naruto noticed the man first and called him over. The man sat down with a low hum next to his daughter. All three exchanged looks, but it was Sakura who broke the ice.

"Uh, Dad? What's wrong, did you not find your papers?"

The researcher shook his head with a grimace before he sighed.

"Not a one, I asked the guys that keep the archives orderly, the tech guys, even the head of the facility that knew he needed to get the documents ready for me…But…it's all gone, even the digital files. Which no one but the people that work the archives should have access too." He said.

An odd sensation ran down the collective spines of the teenagers. Because now it really was suspicious.

"What exactly where on those files." Sasuke questioned. The older man pursed his lips.

"Speculative information about the significance of certain landmarks across the region." He sighed. "I was suppose to retrieve it for my research partner Kushina since she would know what to do with it more than I to move our project right along. Oh geez, when she finds out what happened she's going to through a chair out the window…"

Naruto perked up again with a wide grin.

"Whoa, wait, Kushina Uzumaki right?" He asked. The other's turned to an excited Naruto who looked about ready to jump up in excitement at a moment's notice.

Hm? Yes, do you know her?" Kizashi quirked a brow, Naruto didn't exactly come off as the scholarly type after all.

"Well duh, she's only my mom! And her tempter is terrifying, I don't envy you." He laughed as the rest sort of stared at him in mild surprise. When the moment of shock wore off Sasuke steered the topic back to the current problem.

"Sakura mentioned this project you're on is pretty secretive." He started with a scrutinizing glare up at the frazzled man. "Is whatever your working on for the League so important someone is willing to steal information to learn about it?"

Kizashi took a moment to furrow his brow in thought before his normally tan skin paled. Ther pursed lips returned as he nodded.

"I can't speak much on the topic…but yeah, those documents could be really bad if in the wrong hands. But I can't think of anyone who would want them. They're important, but still steeped in a lot of speculation and hearsay. But…" he rested his chin in his hands.

"I called in to have those documents ready by the time I'm ready to leave here. They were only printed out this morning and other than some of the employee's and I, no one has been down the archives hall. The one around the corner of the Goomy enclosure."

Sasuke thought to himself in attempt to remember if he or the other two trainers spotted anyone coming from the same direction Sakura's father had disappeared to earlier that day. He was put out when he realized that no, he couldn't recall a thing.

"What about that Mr. Suzu guy?" Sakura suggested. "He didn't really look like any of the other researchers I saw while at the facility." The pink haired trainer tilted her head side it side and Sasuke perked up as he recalled the moment the nondescript, dark haired man tired to rush them out.

"I noticed he was fiddling with his bag when you came back. Could he have taken the documents?" he suggested. Kizashi looked troubled at such a thought.

"Mr. Suzu shouldn't even know that they kept such documents, he had only just recently transferred to the labs here…but…"

"But?" Sasuke raised a brow. The pale haired man looked like he would have continued talking when a ringing filled the quite group. The dozing pokemon twitched, awake, Murkrow, none too pleased and glared up in tired annoyance before flapping its wings to nest in Sasuke's arms.

Vulpix looked up from her own trainer to cast intelligent orange eyes towards the father. Kizashi shook his head and reached into his pocket to flip open a worn, last year model poke nav and held it up to his ear.

"Professor Haruno here." He answered. Sakura strained to hear the sharp murmuring over the other end of the phine next to her father as the man furrowed his brow in confusion. The other two trainers turned to Sakura, then back to her father just as the large man's eyes widened.

"Wait, that can't be right…We—yeah, I know but…" Thick fingers came up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Dad?" Sakura murmured softly in confusion. Kizashi glanced at her before something said from the other person on the line gave him pause. The man shot up in a sudden show of energy and turned back towards the path.

"Are you sure? I did misplace my visitors pass yesterday and it was…shit it was Suzu who found it for my in the break room! I'm on my way, call the authorities at once, that data must be found!"

Sakura gapped at her retreating father before catching the eye of both Naruto and Sasuke who gave her a serious nod. She bolted up shortly after and ran after her father as the other boys followed at her heels.

"Dad! What's going on?"

He turned back towards them with a grimace.

"Someone claiming to be a Professor Mouzu Suzu just arrived after their transfer from a bio lab from Forest Province."

"Two Suzu's?" Naruto furrowed his brow.

"Right after some important papers go missing? Then the one we met had to be an imposter." Sasuke said with no contest. The Murkrow at his shoulder crowed before lifting itself up in the air. Sasuke unhooked the other poke ball from his belt and pressed the release button to bring Cottonee out of confinement.

"Find a suspicious man with a duffle bag." Sasuke commanded quickly. "One of you keep him from escaping if you find them, the other come back to find us at the Preservation lab."

The indigo bird pokemon and floating ball of cotton gave an affirmative cry before flying off. Kizashi made an agreeable grunt before he pulled out his own pokeball.

"This might help them with the muscle, Braviary, tail them." Kizashi released a massive, dark blue bird pokemon, fierce looking as any predator with wild white plumage crowning its head. The trio could feel the air as it displaced under the Braviary's powerful wing thrusts and screeched. Sakura grinned up at the valiant pokemon as it glanced down at them all before flying off in the same direction of Sasuke's pokemon. Naruto shouted out in excited amazement.

"Holy—Whoa, that pokemon was awesome!" he stumbled as they continued to run towards the labs. Sakura turned back to the road ahead and saw the building through the small traffic of locals.

The eldest Haruno was the first to enter and made a b-line for the head of the facility as well as a few people with their hair pulled back, one of them, a woman wore slightly tacky thick framed glasses. There was one other person, a slightly taller than average man with dark, almost black hair. It was brushed back neatly, his sideburns famed his thin face; he had sharp, brown eyes as he turned almost immediately to the commotion the trainers and the professor. Sakura's father goes immediately over to ask some questions as the three trainers keep their attention out the windows in case they spot either of Sasuke's pokemon

* * *

 

Naruto is the first to spot the white ball amongst the old timey buildings and people. Cottonee flew up to the glass doors and cried out in a higher pitched tone as it waved its leaves in the opposite direction.

Without a thought, Naruto was the first out with Vulpix hot on his tail to follow the floating dual type. Sasuke, not one for waiting much either followed after. Sakura, stared after the two boys and glanced back at her father and several other people, too distracted to notice that they had found the man responsible for the odd happenings. She steeled her eyes and turned, leaving the door to slam shut behind her.

Budew's pokeball was in her grasp the moment she caught up with the two boys. Squawking sounds and angry shouts came from where ever Sasuke's pokemon was leading them. They could hear Murkrow's caws as it laughed and Sakura recognized her father's Braviary's harsh cries. It was around the corner, in a dank ally that they found the Suzu impostor as he held a bag close to his chest as Murkrow annoyed the hell out of him with hard pecks and the larger valiant pokemon shoved the man around, closer to the trainers as Naruto made a grab for the bag.

The imposter turned a displeased look towards the teenagers and cursed.

"Not you brats again!"

"Don't you know it pal, now give us the papers you stole!" The blond demanded. The man snorted rudely before he braced himself and shoved the bag into Naruto's arms, he smacked Murkrow away harshly.

Sasuke grit his teeth in anger before Braviary caught the smaller pokemon in his wings, waiting to see what the man would do next.

"I don't need the damn thing anymore anyways…" the impostor smirked as he threw a pokeball into the air. Released, a bird, adorned with a bone apron stretched her wings and screeched loud and ready as she settled a menacing stare down at the pokemon in her way.

Without a command, the Mandibuzz flapped one wing and created a harsh enough power that the very air itself slashed Braviary across the back. Caught off guard, the large bird of prey dropped out of the sky, Murkrow, unfortunately fell with him and landed on the ground first. Sasuke clicked his tongue and ran to the side of the narrow alley to try and lift his pokemon out from under the larger pokemon.

The thief took a step back before jumping into the air and reaching out. The Mandibuzz caught its trainer expertly and flapped his wings harder to lift them higher into the air.

"Vulpix, Fire Spin!" Naruto growled. Sakura jolted as the red fox growled high and released a swirling vortex of fire at the pokemon escaping.

That's right, there was still mention of all the files missing from the computer too. Whoever this man was, must have downloaded it onto a USB as well.

Sakura furrowed her brows, then why take the paper documents too?

"Budew, Hidden Power!" she threw her pokeball into the air as the bright light formed her battle ready pokemon. There was a type advantage…but she would just have to work around it.

The bulb-like pokemon gathered balls of energy close to it before sending them swiftly to their targeted vulture pokemon. With quick maneuvering, the energy was a simple matter to avoid as the bird just got further and further from town.

"We can't let him get away! He could have a USB on him." Sakura told the boys, who seemed to agree with her for the most part.

Cottonee was the up in the air to give chase in no time, Sasuke, looking up as they ran towards the edge of town scowled.

"Cottonee, come back, she's got you beat!" However, the small creature ignored him stubbornly. Sasuke groaned in agrivation; his other pokemon was held stiffly in his arms, too stunned to get up into the air just yet.

Naruto cried out.

"Where's Braviary? None of our pokemon but Sasuke's can fly and both can't handle a fully evolved pokemon like Mandibuzz."

Sakura bit her lip.

"Braviary is pretty old despite how energetic he looks, that Air Slash might have hit something it shouldn't have…I hope dad finds him." She wrapped her arms tighter around her pokemon as it shot a bullet seed that missed just barely. Mandibuzz cawed and her trainer shouted out in annoyance.

Two more pokemon joined the man in the air, both Gligar. Cottonee met both of them in the air with determination and chucked razor sharp leaves at them both as the trio were forced to follow the aerial battle out of town and into the hilly land beyond that would turn into mountains.

"Cottonee, don't let them hit you!" Sasuke demanded as the two twin pokemon danced through the air around the cotton puff as it charged ethereal green energy balls to shoot at its opponents.

There was a sharp cry and one of Cottonee's attack's hit one of the Gligar, it was a hard hit too as the pokemon was too stunned to fly as it shot to the ground. Sakura too that chance and charged forward, ahead of the other two.

"Budew opened its mouth for another round of golden bullet seed, yet, the energy went no farther than her opened mouth and conformed into a green orb. It barreled towards the falling Gligar and hit it right in the back, slamming it into the ground so hard it left a skid mark.

"Damn it!" Sasuke growled. Looking up, Sakura caught what looked like another of the Mandibuzz's Air Slash attacks make a direct hit on Cottonee, the tiny creature careened towards the ground at a painfully fast pace and Sasuke just barely made it in time to catch the ball of fluff in the capture light of its pokeball.

The three looked up in panic, the thief was getting too far from them and Sakura was at the edge of a steep drop off into a river. There was no way to follow as the man laughed in their faces. They watched with tense shoulders and defeated expressions as the man and his pokemon retreated into the clouds.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed. At his feet, Vulpix let the risen fur at the back of her neck fall flat as the rest of their pokemon that were out slumped in defeat. Sakura pat the bulb on top of Budew's head in a comforting way as she let out a ragged sigh.

"Come on, at least we still have the papers…we can just give them to dad and tell the authorities what direction the thief flew off into." She suggested as she turned her head to the boys. Sasuke held his head down low as his hands ran down Murkrows back as the weakened bird let out a concerned sound that was like a combination of a chirp and purr.

"Yeah…I think I dropped them back in that alley before we started chasing him." Naruto groaned as he turned around and started heading back. Sakura shook her head in exasperation and stumbled that first step away from the drop off. She squeaked and would have fallen to her knees if it wasn't for the slightly clammy hand that grasped her upper arm. Looking up, Sasuke stares down at her with a frown.

"Careful." He grunted, she gave him a thankful look.

"Sorry, it's kinda slippery…" she muttered as she moved to stand straighter when the earth around her shifted. She gasped sharply as she looked down at the ground in concern, Sasuke looked down as well just as the dirt at Sakura's feet loosened and started sliding down, dragging her down with it. Sakura couldn't even say a word before solid ground was no longer a thing as her weight brought Sasuke down with her.

"Naruto!" He gasped before they knew it, Budew was gone from Sakura's arms and there was a sharp, cold stabbing pain. No screaming no wait or anticipation, just freezing river water as the two were pulled under the current and lead somewhere unknown.

They couldn't hear Naruto's horrified screams as they were washed away.

* * *

 

The late evening light was fading fast as a black button nose poked through the budding berry bush. Black doe eyes blinked in the encroaching darkness of night as it found a worrying sight on the edges of the watering hole.

Blinking in curious concern at the two clearly human forms that lay drenched and unconscious at the river's edge the creature took a hesitant hoof step towards the unconscious humans, then another until it stood directly in front of the one with darkened pink hair much like the patches of fur finally growing in as the bite of winter left the area. It leaned its head down and sniffed at the girl's hair as she let out a tired, pained groan.

It stepped back, startled, before shuffling its hooves nervously and calling out a distress call to the rest of the herd.


	15. Be a Deerling and Shut Up

Naruto pulled at his hair as he paced the hallway of the research lab. His feet could not stop moving, he could not stop thinking. Arceus, it was all his fault! If only he had waited for them, if only he had kept an eye on Sakura so close to the ledge.

Naruto cried out in his hands at his stupidity. They fell. They fell off the ledge and he couldn't do anything but grab hold of Budew and catch Murkrow as he failed to latch onto his trainer's jacket. If he couldn't save his friends, he would at least save their pokemon from serious injury. But that still didn't make up for the fact that he didn't save them.

Naruto had stared down the drop off in horror as he watched the two trainers go under before being washed away in the powerful current. It was only by Vulpix's determined bark that he had the peace of mind to rush back to the ally, gather the mud stained papers and burst into the research lab and flip his shit at what just happened as Murkrow and Budew both panicked silently.

Something tugged at the hem of his jeans and the frightened boy looked down to see his Vulpix staring up at him with concerned amber eyes before turning to the Budew and Murkrow huddled close together. They were so lack luster, appearing so small and unlike their bouncy or boisterous selves.

Naruto gulped and rubbed his face with a heavy sigh, that right. He wasn't the only one freaking out. Budew had been in Sakura's arms right before she must have subconsciously thrust her dearest pokemon out of harm's way. And Murkrow, despite being so hurt had tried to pull them up as they fell to only loss his grip because it lacked the strength. Both pokemon had witnessed their beloved human fall and none of them knew if they were all right.

A search party had been sent out as well as a pair of local Pokemon Rangers that knew the area. Naruto was asked to stay put. It pissed him off that he couldn't go looking for them, he felt so useless. But Kizashi, who was just as scared at the thought of his daughter in danger and missing, assured Naruto that the Rangers and search party would find them.

Naruto, despite it going against every feeling in his body, stayed put. But if they weren't found by the time Murkrow has recovered from being crushed under the weight of Braviary, he was sure as anything going to go out and search for them himself.

* * *

 

Everything was sore and cold when consciousness found Sasuke. His eyes squeezed tight as he hissed at the pounding headache as he wiggled feeling back into his toes and fingers. A light breeze from where ever he lay reminded him he was outside and that his clothes were soaked through.

Something solid and damp pressed softly against his cheek, he wanted to push it away, but his arms decided not to listen to him as the wet thing sniffed him before a gruff, snort of some kind left it and the nose of sorts pulled away.

He peered up into the dark, depths of the tree tops when he finally opened his black eyes and for one moment in confusion he wondered why. Why was he sleeping outside, what exactly was he laying his head down and when had night fallen.

Where were Sakura and Naruto?

Sasuke stiffened then, and bolted up right as he remembered falling, Sakura's open mouth as the wind swallowed any gasp she would have made as she fell first and accidentally brought him down with her. The feeling of river water grasping at him and pink hair swirling in he current as the impacted knocked the female trainer out cold.

Oh Arceus…

Dark eyes stared at nothing as a chill much stronger than his wet clothes provided. Where was Sakura?

There was a shuffling from behind him and another snort. A thump, then another and that same wet nose pressed against his shoulder. Sasuke whipped around and came face to face with the stern, brown eyes of a large Sawsbucks with branching horns blooming elegantly with pink blossoms.

But he didn't care, where was she? Where was Sakura?

The Sawsbucks blinked calmly at his confused, panicked eyes before turning its attention to something at his side. The buck tapped a front hoof on a rock on the ground and Sasuke looked over as well.

Curled up with its head resting on her stomach was a small Deerling whose coat was just starting to shift into its spring color. But that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was the person the pokemon's head lay on. Her head was turn towards him but her eyes were closed. Just like him her hair was stringy from the river and her clothes clung to her. But he could see her breathing, could see her eye lids flutter.

Sasuke didn't realize just how relieved he was to see the troublesome girl unharmed as he dropped his head into his hands and sighed loudly.

He didn't want to admit it, but that was scary. Sasuke had never lost a friend, mostly because he didn't have any, why would he need any when all he wanted was to beat a certain man and take his place? Friends were a distraction.

"Damn it…" he breathed as he fell back onto the earth and turned his normally impassive face to watch the girl before him, shifting only when the Sawsbucks near him settled back at his head to keep him warm. It was then, that he started to notice everywhere around him there were Sawsbucks and Deerling and the occasional Stantler. All were curled up around each other, heads resting on the ground deep in sleep.

The trainer looked up at the large buck he used as a pillow as it licked the top of the Deerling laying close to Sakura. Sasuke assumed it must have been this herd of pokemon that saved them from a worse fate.

Breathing heavily through his nose, Sasuke closed his eyes to the darkness, warmed by the body heat of the wild pokemon so kind enough to take them in. The warmed at his back reminded him that most of him was still cold though, so in attempt to remedy that, he removed his jacket and used it as a blanket for now.

Turning to his side he sighed as he started to really process what had happened and what kind of predicament he had found himself in.

He fell back asleep to the calm breathing of the pokemon herd.

* * *

 

Sakura groaned at the soreness of her body as it came slowly to wakefulness. Everything hurt, her muscles stretched and contracted just so she could feel it when her hand moved to cover her throbbing forehead.

She wondered what was going on and where she was because the ground she lay on felt neither like water or whatever afterlife she would have been lead to if she had died.

Sakura flexed her fingers she still appeared to have. Ok…at least she wasn't a Yamask or something.

A cold, wet, something tickled her cheek and she twitched, moving her hand away from her head to open her eyes. She peered up into the face of a blinking Deerling as its nice curiously poked her cheek.

"…Wha?"

The pink furred Deerling brushed it's nose against her hair before lifting its head up to give her a smile; then, went right back to prodding her with its cold, tickling nose. Even if she was sore as heck and unsure of what was happening, she giggled at the ticklish sensation before pushing the pokemon's face away from her own to sit up.

Sunlight filtered into the clearing through the canopy of trees and gave off enough light for Sakura to lay her gaze on a whole heard of Deerling and Sawsbucks as the one next to her cantered around in happiness before running off somewhere.

"Cute…" she snorted as she helped herself to stand up, only just noticing the stiff, still slightly damp quality of her clothes. The trainer pat down her back of dead leaves as a very large Sawsbucks walked up to her. She stopped with what she was doing and blinked up at the hard set brown eyes before the buck lowered its head to butt at her cheek with its muzzle. Unsure of what it wanted from her though Sakura raised a hand to pet it along its snout as it made a sound through its nose to indicate it was pleased.

"Ugh! Hey, what are you—"

Out from the foliage, Sakura watched as the Deerling dragged Sasuke into the clearing by the edge of his shirt. He wore an annoyed scowl as he played a mini battle of tag-o-war for his shirt until he looked up and both caught each other's eye. His black ones seemed to widen as his whole body stilled where he was as Sakura took in his less than tidy appearance. He had dirt stains, though it was mostly hard to tell, on his jeans and shirt. Deerling let him go and pranced back to Sakura's side and stared up at her and the head Sawsbucks.

"Sasuke..you…" Sakura breathed as she recalled her final moments before passing out. Her shoulders twitched when she took another look around the clearing.

"Budew and Murkrow! Oh Arceus, where are our Pokemon, Sasuke!" she gasped. It had to have been the high pitch of her voice that brought Sasuke's mind back to him as he held up a hand to grasp her shoulder and give her a familiar frown.

They're with Naruto." He answered simply. The frantic trainer still vibrated where she stood though, eyes wide.

"How do we know that for sure, I blacked out Sasuke, I can't remember what happened other than falling!"

The frown on the male trainer's lips deepened, as if offended his words were not being taken seriously. He huffed and took his hand away from the girl to cross them.

"You pushed Budew up near the cliff edge, pretty sure Naruto caught her, Murkrow can fly." He explained tersely.

"Right now we are in an area with not even a nature trail so right now we're pretty freaking lost. We still have your Shellos and my Cottonee though, they were still clipped to our pants when we fell."

The explination seemed to satisfy the frantic girl for now and her shoulders relaxed and the Deerling between the two stared up at it.

Curiously, the Deerling thumped it's front hooves into the ground, the noise gaining the humans' attention before it looked up at the both of them with its doe-like eyes and pranced around them before going towards the edge of the clearing and looking back at them. Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other before looking back at the four legged pokemon.

"I think it wants us to follow it…" Sakura's lips quirked up into a small smile, she was the first to accept the wild pokemon's help and started towards it. Yet Sasuke, being the dubious one he was didn't budge.

"How do we even know it knows the way to a trail, or even back into town?" he questioned. The pink haired trainer shrugged.

"Do you have a better solution then, Sasuke, if anything a pokemon from these parts will at least know where humans are regularly spotted." She pointed out.

"Don't be so worried, we still have means to protect ourselves if any wild pokemon attack, lets just find a way back to Naruto and my dad."

Sasuke, unable to really argue her point sighed before following the two deeper into the woodland.

* * *

 

It had been hours since the two trainers were being led by the Deerling. They were tired and hungry and Sakura was starting to fall behind.

Currently, the pink furred pokemon was leading them up a steep hill, looking back every few minutes to make sure the two were still following. Sasuke wore a perpetual scowl, it was getting late and none of them had even broken through the woodland. Sakura, through her heavy breaths, tried not to make too much of a fuss. She could practically see the tension working its way through his shoulders as Deerling lead them farther from where they started with still not so much as a hint of human contact.

A dead branch under foot caught her boot and she yelped as she fell face first into the lush ground, more thankful than anything the ground was soft enough from the dead leaves and fertile dirt. Her nose still stung though as she heard the heavy footsteps of the others with her halt in their trek. Sasuke cursed somewhere up a head before stomping over to her to yank her up by the arm.

"Watch where you're going next time." He hissed angrily. She flinched as the rough treatment of her arm and yanked it back to her side.

"Jeez, Sasuke, you didn't have to practically pop my shoulder out of place." She snapped back, just as annoyed.

"Yeah, well at least I wasn't the one who thought following a random pokemon was the brightest way out of here."

"Are you still going on about that? What else could we have done? We don't have a map, or a compass, and none of our smaller electronics can pick up a signal. I didn't see you suggesting ideas." She argued hotly.

"And trusting a wild pokemon was the only solution?" Sasuke growled. "Face it Sakura, we're lost even farther in this place because of your dumb idea." He turned on her with the full force of his scathing glare. Unconsciously, she took a step back, intimidated for only a moment until she remembered they were on a steep incline of soft earth. Her foot slipped on wet leaved as she lurched backwards yet again. Panicking, her hands latched onto Sasuke's jacket and pulled him down for the ride.

"Fuck!"

The tumble down was a jumbled of grunts and they didn't stop rolling down until they hit an old log. Sakura groaned as she grasped at the back of her head.

"Damn it, Sakura!" Sasuke groaned, lifting off her to hover above her. Dead leaves fell from his hair and he sported a couple scratches on his cheeks just as she must have from the sting she felt. She eyed him shrewdly.

"I didn't mean too, I panicked!"

"Why do you have to get into so much trouble?" he pushed away from her and sat back into the dirt, whipping away the leaves and dirt. Deerling called out to them in concern and walked steadily down the hill to see if it could help. It came up first to Sasuke and leaned into him, but the angered boy simply shoved it away.

Deerling stumbled back in surprise and took a moment to right itself from also slipping down. It's ears flattened against its head as its head lowered nervously. Sakura glared up at his as she sat up.

"You didn't need to shove the Deerling, it only wanted to help!"

"And look where that got us! This is all your fault." He ground out. "If this is how traveling with you is going to be then you should head home before you break a leg…or mine."

Sakura clenched her teeth in aggravation as all thought flew out the window.

She thought they were finally becoming friends, She, Naruto, and Sasuke. They may not talk all together, but she had at least took note he had become more relaxed around them, and he had been more willing to talk, at least to her for a short time.

But, she guessed, once a Stunky-Head, always a Stunky-head.

A resounding slap echoed through the woods as Deerling jumped up in surprise. It's big, round eyes staring worriedly at the two teenagers sitting in a messy pile of twigs and debris. One had her hand held stiffly mid air, while the other had his head forced to one side. A big red hand print starting to form on his pale features.

The three were dead silent as Sakura's ragged breathing evened out. She lowered her hand to her lap as it throbbed from the force she slapped Sasuke with. Taking one last deep breath before releasing it, Sakura calmed herself to speak in a soft voice.

"I'm trying, alright Sasuke. I know I still have a lot to learn when it comes to traveling, but you yelling and blaming me or someone else for our trouble isn't going to fix it. So if you cannot say something nice or helpful…then kindly shut the hell up until you can find something constructive to say." Standing up on wobbly legs, the trainer brushed off the dirt and twigs from her back and held out a hand to the stunned silent boy still sitting on the ground with a hand hovering over his cheek, not quite sure if it was ok to touch it. Dark eyes flickered up to eye her hand without giving away anything of what he was feeling. He grabbed her hand and allowed the other trainer to help him to his feet. She gave him a strained smile.

"I'm sure once we're up hill everything will get better, come on." Sakura turned away from him and held out a reassuring hand to their Deerling guide who butted her hand readily. Sasuke didn't turn his head to follow until the pink haired trainer was ahead of him. Bringing a hand to his stinging cheek he eyed her as she stumbled back up the hill. Silently, he followed after.

* * *

 

Sakura had been right. The steep hill they climbed lead up to a nature trail where there were a few volunteers that had been searching for them. It wasn't twenty minutes later the two teenagers where back it town, dirty and a little shaken, but still in one piece.

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura mentioned the angry red hand print on the boys' cheek as their pokemon jumped into their arms, pleased to have them back. Naruto hugged them both tightly, apologizing profusely as he sniffled and swallowed the lump. Sasuke wasn't too pleased, if the lump on the blonds head was anything to go by, but Sakura happily hugged the affectionate boy back until her father wanted her all to himself to make sure she was ok.

Just for Kizashi's sake, before he left, he made the trio promise to stay overnight in town and continue traveling to Wind Province in the morning.

The next day the trio quietly slipped away after breakfast to figure out the best way leading up to the capitol of Wind, Suna.

About half a mile out of town a figure standing at the edge of the road was waiting for them, Sakura recognized it as the Deerling that had helped Sasuke and she the day before. Naruto, curious, watched as the girl called the Deerling over. It ran up to her without pause, smiling up at her.

A look passed between she and the pokemon before she grinned and held up Budews pokeball. The Deerling seemed to understand as it shot her a determined look as it snorted.

"Uh, Sakura, what are you doing?" Naruto asked as she released Budew, the two grass types faced off as the girl grinned up at him.

"Catching myself a Deerling." said pokemon leaped away just as Budew sent a hail of bullet seeds down the road.

Deerling landed, quick on its feet and charged at the bud.

"Hidden Power."

It was a quick hit of colorless energy that knocked the deer pokemon back just long enough for Sakura to throw a pokeball. It shook only once before Sakura made a pleased sound and walked down the road to pick it up.

She glanced back at the two boys and waved them over alright, lets get the lead out you two.

* * *

 

While traveling, Murkrow tapped at Sasuke's shoulder. The boy glanced at his pokemon as it dropped something into his hand. Dark eyes looked down at a purple dyed bracelet made of braided rope; he furrowed his brows, unsure of what it was but stashed it in his pocket with a shrug.

He scratched at the breast of the indigo bird as they continued on their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fight leading up to Sakura slapping Sasuke was suppose to be more intense, but I couldn't figure out how to escalate it to that point. So it mostly turning into a slap of frustration...
> 
> Catching Deerling was also suppose to be a little more involved, but then I for got to write the scene before uploading this chapter onto my doc manager on ff.net. So i just ended up writing a little thing at the end.


	16. Snap Trap

A hot blast of wind tugs at Sakura's hair, sending it right into her dry mouth as she tried to do something to stop it. Sand shifted underfoot and made her balance unsteady as she and her companions trudged through the blazing landscape that was the Wind Provence desert lands.

They really did not take into account the sudden temperature change from the temperate condition from the first leg of the journey to now. The eastern desert was nothing but sand, shrubbery and rock formations. Waves of heat beat down of them from the clear blue sky. They had been traveling for a while and the sun and dry heat had been relentless. Already the three of them had shed as much clothes as reasonably acceptable. Camisoles were stuffed into bags, hoodies tied to hips and a leather jacket sticking out from another bag. All three had opted to just share one water bottle at a time to conserve the few they had left at this point in their travels through the desert.

From the far back Naruto groaned as he kicked off a shoe to shake out the accumulating sand.

"Are we there yet?" he whined, causing a chain reaction between the other two. Sasuke throws the half full water bottle at the trainer behind him as Sakura groans at them both.

She pulled up her tank top to wipe at the sweat on her brow.

"Naruto…it's too damn hot to deal with your questions." She grunted and shielded her eyes with a hand. Checking the surrounding barren landscape to see if there were any nearby rock formations that would provide a shady area to take a break in. However, for all the rolling dunes of sand and pretty blue skies, there wasn't a bit of shade anywhere around. Sakura made a distinct noise from her throat that sounded like she was being strangled.

"Guys... I don't see anything." She groaned. "There might not be anything near us for miles! Oh my Arceus, what if we die from heat stroke!" she panicked. Her fingers buried themselves in her damp with sweat pink hair.

From somewhere behind her, Sasuke huffed and though she couldn't see it, she was sure he rolled his eyes at her.

Naruto shrieked at the thought before suddenly going silent. Concerned, Sakura turned around and shrieked at the sight of a gapping sink hole behind Sasuke. She grasped his wrist and yanked him away just as he noticed it. He blinked before looking around them.

"Where's the idiot?" he asked. Another shriek from a dry throat and Naruto's tan hands scraped at the edges of the sink hole, trying desperately to grab hold of solid ground. Yet, with their being nothing but sand his fight was for naught. The two other trainers gasped as they ran as close to the edge as they could without slipping in themselves. Peering down into the hole as Naruto pleaded with them to help him they saw a beady eyed Trapinch. It snapped its oversized jaw up in the air as it shifted the sand around it.

Sakura's green eyes widened as she made to grab her friend's hand.

Arena Trap, an ability most Trapinch had, And they had walked right into it. Naruto reached out to grab onto her, however suddenly she was yanked back by the collar of her shirt. Landing in the coarse sand, feeling it tangle in her hair the pink hair trainer was met with the stern expression of Sasuke, clenching his jaw in irritation.

Naruto dug his hands into the sand, trying against all odds to free himself of the sink hole. He yelled profanities towards Sasuke, who opted to ignore them.

"What the hell Sasuke!? What did you do that for?" she shrieked.

"Did you really think you could pull the idiot out without getting stuck yourself? You hardly weigh a thing, if anything; you would be pulled down into that hole with him!" Sasuke argued back, catching her off guard. Realizing he did make a good point she sat back up and ignored the irritating feeling of sand grains digging into her skin as she watched Naruto's hands disappear again. She turned to Sasuke frantically.

"What do we do?" she cried. Her heart starting to beat faster and faster as she started realizing this was bad, this was real bad. Head turning once more to were Trapinch's snapping jaw could be heard against Naruto's panicked yelps the girl had half a mind to guy throw half her body into the trap to try and reach for the boy again. Sasuke's firm grasp on her upper arm, however, prevented that as he scowled down at the trap, looking fully focused on trying to figure out a way to free the blond.

Then he blinked and turned to her with a completely serious face.

"Well…I mean, we could just leave Naruto to die, he snores anyways." He shrugged.

Sakura opened her mouth to retort something before her mind halted and she had to do a mental double take to hear what the Uchiha just said.

"Sasuke that's…"

"You bastard! Don't make a joke out of this! If I die, I'm haunting you forever! You'll never be able to make friends with a fucking ghost around you, eating all your food!" Naruto roared, scampering up the loose sand enough for a hand to pop out over the threshold and point threateningly in their general direction.

Raising her hands to the face, Sakura screamed into them pathetically.

"This is not the time to reveal your terrible sense of humor Sasuke, damn it, we need a real plan!"

"I am all for leaving him here." Sasuke pointed out mildly. A strong urge to throw her other companion into the pit of doom was strong.

Before any throwing could be decided though, a dark shadow was drawn over both trainers as it flew over their heads. Both trainers's looked up in shock, only able to catch a flash of a black and pink stomach before it dived into the arena trap that Naruto was stuck in.

There was a ferocious growl and a yelp from Naruto. When there were no more noises and the two began getting concerned, sharp, elongated claws popped out from the threshold of the sink hole and dug into the grainy sand and lifted up a Krokorok with a triumphant gleam in its eye and a more than happy Naruto slung over its shoulder and hanging on for dear life. A wild grin was on his face.

The sandy grown and striped crocodile pokemon leapt from the hole and landed on its feet. The trainers shuffled to their feet and were at Naruto's side as he was let down. Sakura hugged him fiercely, as Sasuke stood back and eyed the pokemon after its sudden appearance. It looked up at him as it scratched sand off its belly. It made no move to leave, only turning to face something over their shoulders when the sound of muffled footsteps entered their hearing. The trio turned as the Krokorok made a throaty noise and made its way to the side of a pale skinned boy around their age. His washed out turquoise eyes stared at them silently.

The boy wore a burgundy head wrap over his hair, Sakura mentally noted it must be one of the ways a local kept the sun from burning their scalp. He wore a loose brown cloak as well over whatever must have been everyday wear for she could see the baggy black pants tucks into his boots.

Naruto was the first to speak, a friendly grin on his face.

"Hey! Is that your Krokorok, thanks, you sure saved my butt. Who knows what would have happened if I reached that Trapinch."

"Your ankles would have been bitten, your foot possibly amputated and then the Trapinch would have abandoned you to bleed out because you are not what it normally eats…Or it would have stolen your shoes." The pale boy murmured in a monotone voice, rough and sand, just like the province itself.

All three weren't exactly sure what to say to that, but Naruto recovered quickly enough to be the one to introduce them to the Krokorok's trainer.

"I'm Garaa." He introduced himself calmly. "Are you three headed towards Suna?"

Sakura nodded.

"Er…yeah, Sasuke wants to challenge the gym leader there since the one in Konoha wasn't in." she explained. A minute smile graced the pale trainer's lips, it almost looked devious.

"Is that so…" he glanced beside himself to his Krokorok as it awaited orders. It grinned back at him toothily.

"If you want, I'll be heading to Suna in a day or two, you can join me if you want."

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto blinked, looked to each other as if debating, though it only took Naruto all of five seconds to hold out a thumbs up to Garaa.

"That sounds like a great idea!" he agreed, Sasuke and Sakura followed suit.

* * *

 

"So what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Sakura asked.

Once Garaa joined them, he started leading the trainers through the desert like a pro. They encountered more pit falls and sink holes made by the Trapinch, Sakura and Sasuke had already fallen into their fair share until Garaa took over since he and his pokemon were much more adept at detecting them.

The pale teenager was looking strained as he ordered his Krokorok to dig in a specific location, only for a group of Trapinch to burrow out of the sand to scamper away, clicking their jaws in warning. He mentioned early on that the influx of Trapinch in this part of the desert was unusual, something to do with a sandstorm in the lower regions of the western desert that kept coming back and making weaker pokemon flee their territory just to find food.

Looking over to her, Garaa replied.

"Suna has a small collection of caves where people can dig for evolution stones. I'm looking for one since there is a small niche community in Suna that specializes in selling them. They asked me if on my next outing to deal with the Trapinch if I could pick some out to restore their stocks."

"You a Ranger or something?" Sasuke questioned as the group side stepped a multiple orange heads as they popped out of the sand like jack-in-the-boxes. Sakura and Naruto weren't as foot savvy though and ended up tripping as the snapping pokemon grabbed onto their show laces.

The female trainer of the group planted herself face first into the sun warmed sand. Naruto, went down in a wave of limbs as he sat on the ground, waving the foot with the orange pokemon attached to it wildly, shrieking about losing his foot.

Garaa raised a brow at him and turned to Sasuke expectantly. The dark haired trainer only shrugged.

"Let them get out of it themselves."

Spitting out sand and grit, the only girl turned her head up and glared at nothing in particular as she cursed the very pokemon that held her down. As it gave her boot clad ankle sharp little love bites, making admittedly adorable little noises, she sighed as if the world were on her shoulders.

"Sasuke, I want to kick you."

"Hn."

She looked up at him with an offended expression.

"Don't you dare revert to animalistic grunts you!" she hissed, shuffling around to reach Shellos's pokeball.

Releasing the slug-like creature onto the sand before her it gave a please noise before its squishy underbelly felt the terrain and wriggled uncomfortably in the sand. It looked at Sakura as if in disbelief she would bring him out in such dry weather, on such a terrible land. Biting her lips and sending a silent apology, the trainer kicked her foot up in the line of sight of her shellos. The Trapinch dangled uselessly, its feet butted at her leg as it blinked silently, caught in its amusement.

"Can you maybe do something about this Shellos?" she asked. The pink pokemon wriggled up Sakura's back, leaving the girl a little put out that now she had two pokemon on her before the pressure on her ankle lessened and there was a thump behind her and a displeased cry. Still feeling the sparse drops of water from the weak water pulse, Sakura sat up, holding her savior in her hands and out of the biting sand. She thanked it before returning the uncomfortable creature back into its pokeball.

Back to her feet and dusting herself off she noticed a more than annoyed Vulpix kicking up sand and chasing after more of the Trapinch horde as they snapped and hissed. Turning to Naruto as he tried to call the frazzled fox back he groaned. Vulpix was in a mood and wasn't listening to a word her trainer said.

Garaa, more than thoroughly amused to watch the fox run back and forth through the heat and sand and spitting fire at the pests wanted to continue on. Nudging his Krokorok, the striped crocodile ran forward to scoop the red fox up in its skinny arms before facing the gathering wild pokemon and roaring out so ferociously it startled the pokemon in its grasp.

The Trapinch jolted and hissed looking frightened by the sounds coming from the larger predator. It took no more coercion on the bigger pokemon after that for the orange turtle-like creature to burrow back under the sand to escape.

Dumping Vulpix into Naruto's arms, Krokorok went back to Garaa who hid a smirk behind his hand at the dumbfounded expressions of the other three.

"Shall we continue?" he murmured before turning smoothly in the sand to walk without looking back to see if the rest were following. But by the excited chatter of Naruto at how cool Garaa and his pokemon was then they most certainly were.

* * *

 

No one between the three starting trainers could speak, the heat and travel had sucked all the water and energy from them. Naruto was stuck pitifully shaking an empty water bottle next to his ear in some vain attempt to double and even triple check if is really was empty. Even though the plastic bottle was clear and see through and very much dry as a bone. Sakura, by this time was trying to keep cool by walking in Garaa's shadow silently. She was far too exhausted to speak and reassure Naruto that they would stop soon.

Because really, she has no idea when they would stop anymore.

In the midst of her thoughts the head wrap wearing trainer did stop and looked back at the others. He gave them a slight smile…at least Sakura thinks it was a smile. She might be getting heat stroke.

"We're close to a place I'm familiar with." He informed and started walking at much brisker pace than before. Naruto perked up just a bit, wanting more than anything a glass of cold water. The last two still lagged behind until they all came to the top of a sand dune to look over and see a small collection of buildings and what looked to be some kind of enclosure. Garaa started heading down.

"What is this place, Garaa?" asked Naruto.

"My friend. She breeds pokemon and this is her home, the other buildings are where she takes care of the pokemon she breeds until they are given away or sold."

"There's a lot of buildings, pokemon are all in them?" Sakura looked out across the property as they got closer. She yelped when suddenly, a Trapinch tried to catch her off guard. The little creature blinked, looking up at her with its odd little pupils before burrowing back into the ground. Letting out a breath, Sakura edge just a little closer to the boys.

"Well…not every single one. One is used to house expecting mothers, there's a clinic in one, and some have to be kept a different temperatures because she breeds a lot of pokemon exotic to Wind Province."

Garaa knocked the moment he reached the front door to what looked like the breeder's home. The teenagers were greeted by an ornery looking elderly woman. A Watchog stood at attention with bright, alert eyes. It peered up at the visitors and chattered happily at the sight of Garaa.

"Garaa? What in the blazes are you doing around here?" the elderly woman huffed, but stood aside to allow the teenagers in. The moment Naruto's feet touched the linoleum he collapsed in front of a fan running in the entryway with a sigh. Not too far after him, surprisingly, was Sasuke and the two began shoving each other away to get a front row seat in front of the fan. From the sound of running fans deeper inside the quaint home, there didn't seem to be any central heating.

Leaving the boys be, Sakura trailed after Garaa as the older woman walked done a hall and into a kitchen where more than one small cat pokemon were tangling each other up in balls of yarn.

Sakura just about had a heart attack at the cuteness. Meowth, Glameow, and even a Skitty, all much smaller than what they should be fully grown.

"I thought I'd be a good thing to stop by, seeing as I picked up some companions on my way to the caves." He answered, sitting down at the kitchen table and inviting Sakura to do the same. She did and giggled sweetly as the kitten's came over to stiff at her and prod her boots.

The breeder looked over her shoulder as she opened her fridge and lifted out a lidded container.

"Well, are you going to introduce me then Garaa, or do I have to do it myself?" she chided, grabbing some glasses from the cupboard next. The teenager blinked as he was in the middle of unwrapping the burgundy cloth from his head to reveal a bright mess of red hair.

"Uh…Sakura, this is Granny Chiyo, Chiyo, Sakura." Garaa glanced between the two females and fiddled with his head wrap in his lap. Chiyo chuckled as she set down a glass of what must be lemonade before she called for the two boys collapsed in the hallway if they wanted any. With everyone all huddled into the kitchen and sipping their drinks, Naruto being Naruto started up a conversation. And without even asking, he dubbed the older woman Granny too.

"So, Granny Chiyo, how to you breed pokemon, don't they all just lay eggs anyways. It couldn't be that hard."

Chiyo snorted.

"If breeding was a s easy as waiting for them to lay eggs I wouldn't be one of the best. First of all, not all pokemon make eggs that their offspring hatch out of. There are just as many pokemon that give live births as egg ones." The breeder explained. One of the Skitty kittens rubbed up against Naruto, who was sitting on the kitchen floor. He reached out a hand to scratch the pink kitten behind the ear.

"I never knew that." Sakura furrowed her brow. "Then does that mean these kittens were a live birth?"

The older woman nodded.

"Pokemon are as strange as they are beautiful creatures. Either they give birth to live young or they create eggs that shield their developing and vulnerable young from outside forces. We aren't entirely sure how many use either method since many wild pokemon hide their nests from prying eyes."

The conversation shifted from then on with Naruto asking about wanting to play with any other baby pokemon in her care. They were in the midst of a nice, late lunch of cucumber sandwiches and watermelon when a sharp alerting cry came from outside.

Sakura startled and Naruto dropped his third sandwich, Sasuke turned to the window as Chiyo shot up from her seat.

"That was my Watchog's warning cry, something is wrong!"

With a surge of speed, surprising for one so old who walked with a stoop, Chiyo ran out a back door. Worriedly, the rest followed closely behind, all with a pokeball in their hands.

Outside, around the building closest to the breeders home sink holes were forming and dozens of Trapinch were pestering the Watchog as it slapped one back with its tail. Only two more took its place and ganged up on the pokemon.

Watchog yowled as it was knocked back, its tail being bitten.

Garaa and the others wasted no time after seeing the breeder's pokemon go down. Deerling, Cottonee, Vulpix, and Krokorok were released from their pokeballs.

"You have to get those sink holes stabilized! That's the incubation building and I have dozens of egg's in there!" Chiyo gasped.

Garaa nodded and threw another pokeball.

"I got just the pokemon that can fix where the Trapinch have been burrowing." With the dissipation of the red beam a bright eyed Sandshrew shook its muscles loose and peered up at the red heads other released pokemon before looking at the rampaging Trapinch around the building starting to groan and shake. It was starting to sink.

"Sandshrew, I need you to deal with the situation underground, Krokorok, get Watchog." The trainer commanded. Order's were followed quickly as the shrew dived underground with a squeak and the crocodile dived headlong into the snapping mass.

Not one to be out done Naruto and Vulpix ran head long into danger. Duplicating itself with double team, Vulpix weaved through the wild pokemon, hitting them with quick attacks. Flying over head, Cottonee shot at the mass with bullet seed. Deerling kicked back sand as it leapt into the air on Sakura's command to punish the pestering orange creatures with a strong jump kick.

The incubator building still trembled all through the fight against the wild snapping turtles. Deerling to a good hit to its flank from a sand attack that had rubbed it until the skin under its pelt was irritated. Sakura dealt with that particular Trapinch with an energy ball to the face.

Sasuke had to cover for Naruto at one point because in the midst of the hyperactive blond picking up and chucking startled Trapinch away from the building, one had surprised him by latching onto the back of his pants with its sharp jaw. Thus, the panicky trainer ran around, trying to yank it off without ripping his pants. The dark haired Uchiha had taken pity on him three minutes through, if only to stop his incessant screaming and send Cottonee to bat it of with razor leaf.

Naruto's pants still ripped and Sakura had half a mind to think that smirk on Sasuke's face and the haughty way his Cottonee floated off meant it was entirely on purpose.

It was a grueling task, chasing off the stubborn wild pests. But in the end the last one finally fled outside Chiyo's property and Krokorok delivered a battered but living Watchog back to the old woman who hugged her as its crooked tail wagged stiffly.

Sakura put her attention in the lop sided incubator building just as the small head of Garaa's Sandshrew poked out of the ground and sand slide off its head. It blinked big blue eyes around the place, and then to the building it just barely stabilized.

Its trainer plucked it right out of the ground as it cooed successfully at a job well done.

"You silly Watchog, we're not as young as we use to be. Don't go jumping head long like these young'uns." Chiyo sighed to her reddish brown rodent as it nuzzled up to her. She chuckled as she picked out its pokeball from her pocket.

"Oh no, don't you try sucking up to me now. Stay in here till I can check that tail out." A beam enveloped the injured rodent before it disappeared. The breeder looked up to the young trainers as they crowed around their own pokemon.

Sakura breathed more easily as she looked over the irritated spot on Deerlings flank. It didn't seem nearly as bothered as the pink haired trainer did as it shook out the sand from his pink pelt.

Vulpix was scratching behind her ear, trying to rid her red fur of the bothersome grains. Cottonee hovered over Sasuke's head as its trainer looked up at it suspiciously before the cotton ball simply dropped itself over his trainers face and got comfortable, ignoring the muffled noises coming from Sasuke telling him to get off his face. Cottonee blissfully ignored him.

Chiyo came up to them, gasping their shoulders. The elderly woman smiled.

"Thank you, it would have been terrible it the building collapsed with all those eggs inside." The three trainers fidgeted, each not expecting the sudden sincerity from the brash old woman. Chiyo turned to Garaa with a grin.

"What do you say, boy, think they deserve a reward for saving the lives of unborn children?"

Garaa raised his brow as he pet the Sandshrew in his arms.

"Stop talking like that, you're giving me the creeps." He grunted. Laughing at his reaction, the breed guided the teenagers over to the building. Confused and curious the trio could do nothing but let the old woman do with them as she pleased. Waiting for her at the entrance of the building it took a few minutes before she walked out with three different eggs of varying colors and design.

Sakura was handed a bright orange egg with broken black stripes.

Naruto an indigo egg with a white circle in the center and black swirl inside that.

Sasuke a blue-black egg with a red slash across the center.

The trainers stared down at the eggs in their own individual incubators, unsure of what to say at the gift for helping with the Trapinch.

Chiyo crossed her arms with a huff.

"Well? No 'thank you, Chiyo?" the old woman chuckled at the awe in their eyes as they looked at the unborn life in their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, was this a hassle. I didn't think trying to upload all my stories onto AO3 would be so time consuming, but then I'm reminded just how many stories I've written and how many chapters are in some on them. At lest this is one less story caught up to my FF.net account.


	17. A Rose by Any Other Name

The displaced rocks that had tumbled down caused the dust in the cave to cloud around the fallen form huddled on the dirty rock ground. They squeezed their eyes shut tight and tried to return the breath that had been knocked out of her the moment she had been thrown to the ground to try and escape the cave from caving in on itself after what she recalled was a very abrupt earthquake.

However, all she had inhaled was a thick layer of dust that dried her already parched throat. It caused her to choke before falling into a fit of dry coughing that made the dirt and grit she inhaled scratch her throat.

Closing her mouth didn't do much better as she felt the grit crunch between her teeth. Giving up, the figure let herself lay on the ground with a worn out groan. The time passing so slowly as she waited for the dust around her to settle before she tried much else; collecting her thoughts to figure out what had just happened.

"Sakura!"

The surprise of the sudden, muffled shout caused her to jerk up, wide green eyes open in shock before they watered from the debris of the unsettled cave. She rubbed at her irritated eyes in the partial darkness of where she sat before there was another worried shock for her. Recognizing the sound of the voice, she squinted through the faint flicker of light to where a wall of boulders sat; blocking what must have been the entrance to the cave.

"Naruto? What happened?" she called warily to the other side.

* * *

 

**_Earlier that Day_ **

If Sakura could choose the way she wanted to die, it would be short, sweet, and painless. She wouldn't have to expect a long, drawn out torturous experience, wouldn't have to have to experience the shameful feeling of wanting to beg for mercy on her hands and knees of the cause of her torment as it beamed down at her with the unrelenting heat of a fire pokemons malice. Or want for gallons and gallons of sun block to bath in, in a futile attempt to keep the red out of her face even as their tormentor was no longer in range as the group lay lazily in the shade of a crumbling relic of what Garaa explained were abandoned watch towers of the past. When the region of Kage had been ruled by ninja's and wars so large scale it encompassed all the provinces and their leaders.

Garaa sat back, leaning on the old and crumbling wall without much thought and watched the poor, unfortunate trainers more accustomed to a more temperate climate struggle to catch their breath and cool down after another long trek through the desert en route to the cave the red haired trainer was sure would hold the stones he was looking for.

Throughout the day, ever since leaving Chiyo's they had been in and out of small collection of caves as Garaa sent his Sandshrew digging through layers of sand and soft stone and clay with nothing but the occasional gemstone, that one fossil, and lots of dead roots.

The female trainer could see the wrinkle between the mostly impassive teenagers brow to know their temporary companion was getting just as annoyed as everyone else that nothing had yet to be found or dug up. He sat farther from them as he brushed the sand from his Sandshrew's hard body, the little blue eyes creature looked up at its trainer as it rested its chin on his knee.

Sakura pulled herself to a sitting position, behind her Sasuke and Naruto were too far gone in their desperate attempts at staying cool that they hadn't moved from their spread eagle positions in the shade since they collapsed five minutes ago. She couldn't much blame them. The sun was unbearable and they were trying to conserve water now that They weren't that far from Sunagakure—from what Garaa had told them. But with Garaa's task at hand the first priority, they were keeping to the caves for now.

Wiping at her sweating forehead again, the girl sighed. Setting her arm down at her side she felt a faint wave of heat coming from the other side of her arm.

Speaking of heat. Turning her head down to the incubator she had set down beside her, Sakura peered down at her orange and black egg. Despite the incubator saving her from most of it, the trainer notice quite quickly that her egg was actually giving off heat. The glass panel that was left to display the egg at all sides had warmed her belly to a ridiculous level as they had traveled to the point she was now habitually fanning the shirt from her stomach to let in the dry breeze of the desert to cool her since the sweat was making the fabric stick to her.

Neither of the other eggs seem to be doing that.

In fact, Sakura turned behind her to see the Uchiha amongst them. He held the incubator as he lay on his side, his forehead lying on the glass with an air of concentration. Sasuke's egg must not be radiating heat at all if he was willing to cuddle up to it.

Back to facing the other read head though, the boy blinked up at her when he caught her staring.

"Anymore caves to check before we die of dehydration?" she asked.

Garaa's brow furrowed deeper in thought for a moment or two before nodding his head.

"There's one left, Rock Snake Cave. It's pretty large and is mostly hollowed out tunnels left by Onix. But it's the only other place I can think of that would be good for mining." He informed.

Humming in agreement, the female trainer looked back at her over heated friends before shrugging.

"Better to do it now and get it over with than wait much more. Naruto, Sasuke, time to go." Sakura stood up and stretched her sore legs. She drank from her water bottle, the water was warm and mostly unapitizing now that it was practically the same temperature as spit. But it wet her throat enough as she went and aided in the whining Naruto's unhappy attempts at standing. He gripped his eggs' incubator like a needy child and looked at her with a put upon expression.

"Do we have to?"

"The sooner we help Garaa find those stones the sooner we can arrive in Suna—"

"And the sooner to my gym battle." Sasuke grunted as he uncapped his water bottle to take a sip. He had a far off look to his eyes, Sakura's lips quirked into an amused smile. The boy was probably thinking about the battle yet to come. It would be the first gym outside of Konoha that he would be challenging seeing as when they first met Kakashi he was out of his gym on League business and with all that had happened with Haku, Sasuke didn't find out the man was the gym leader until after he had left.

"Come on you two, let's make this last search count." She grinned at them.

* * *

 

Garaa lead them through the sand with the familiarity of a native as he has since he joined up with the group, his pokemon, like the rest of theirs tucked away into their pokeballs. He was silent; no one really had much energy to speak what with the heat making sure to zap it all away.

When they finally came to the entrance to Rock Snake Cave they noticed, with some great surpise on the trio's part. That the entrance was actually what appeared to be a large bolder buried mostly underground so it was hard to tell how large it really was. It had been burrowed into by what must have been either a Steelix or Onix as the tunnel through the hard rock was rough and parts jutted out in the vogue shape of a circle. It lead deep underground, the absence of light very obviously noticeable by the fact the cave was swallowed into it only a few yards in.

Garaa turned back to the group.

"Do any of you have flashlights?" he asked.

Turns out, as long as you have an egg with the tendency to give of light like a weak lantern everything would be ok.

Sakura blinked, studying the egg radiating heat around her in the thankfully cool, but pitch black cave. None of them had noticed due to it still being pretty bright outside that her egg not only gave off heat like a furnace, but was illuminated by what Sakura could only describe as an inner fire burning within the egg and most likely within the baby pokemon itself.

It was an amazing sight to see. She had seen eggs before from the daycare her mother ran, but she never knew they could do something like this. None of her teachers in Pokemon biology at the Academy had ever mentioned offspring much.

Beside her, Garaa nudged her away from a pot hole. The trainer looked up from marveling with an embarrassed pink hue to her cheeks through the flicker of light that illuminated the cave courtesy of her egg to look up at the trainer see was assisting.

"Oh, thanks…uh…" she stumbled over her words in the silence. The trainer gave her a smirk the closest to a smile she had seen on the introverted trainer as he focused on the path ahead once more.

On her other side there was a brush of skin on her arm, she blinked and looked up to notice Sasuke, his frown lit up by their only light. She had just about forgotten he and Naruto were there.

"Watch where you walk." The dark haired trainer muttered. Just then there was a loud yelp that echoed loudly throughout the cave. It startled the three up ahead. Sakura flinched and all three looked back to see Naruto had face planted on the hard rock ground after he tripped up from his foot falling into the pothole she almost fell in.

Garaa snorted before walking back to the blond as he whined that even with the egg it was so hard to see. Why had none of them packed flashlights?

Beside each other, Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes at the blonds' insufferable complaints as he is helped to his feet by their desert dwelling friend.

"Shouldn't be much farther before we get to a place I can get my pokemon to dig. We're still walking on rock too hard for any of the pokemon I brought to dig through." Garaa explained to them.

Naruto jutted his lip out as he pat the dust off his shirt from where he kicked it up with his landing. He looked around and sighed with relief as he spotted his own egg, dark blue still safely tucked away in its own incubator. He picked it up.

At his insistent grumbling, Sasuke shot him an annoyed look.

"At least we aren't melting in the heat." He pointed out. That shut the boy up real quick with a sigh before telling Garaa to go back to leading the way.

As she adjusted the hold of the incubator in her arms and stepped away to join Garaa in the lead to give him a lit trail to follow there was a startling rumble that came from deeper within the cave. Unprepared for the sudden quake that followed the rumble, Sakura and the rest clumsily lost their balance. Stumbling back a bit to try and find purchase the rock walls shook as a gravely roar echoed through the tunnel and shook the four to their core.

Crying out as she tripped over a stone in the midst of the shaking and foreboding sounds of a large, unpleased pokemon, Sakura was unable to stop herself from falling over as the quaking loosened the rocks over head.

Naruto had shouted for everyone to take cover, there was nothing else they could really do as Sakura lost the illumination to the cave, her egg being jostled from her grasp. The trainers were thrust back into darkness as their world shook around them and rocks started falling.

She could hear someone calling out to her as she called out for her companions. But darkness did funny things to your sense of perspective, she couldn't tell from where her friend's voices came from as they were drowned out by the noise of whatever was causing the cave to shake.

Sakura, wide eyed through the darkness as her panicked heart rate increased turned onto her hands and knees in an attempt to find her egg, her only light as he felt and heard rocks fall around her. It was dangerous. A rock brushed against her hip painfully, it knocked her back on her side as she screamed, high pitched and frantic. Closing her eyes for the barest second in fear before looking forward again in time to see her vulnerable egg, its light barely pulsing. It had tumbled out of its incubator. Through the ruckus and the cacophony of noise she crawled in the direction of the light her baby pokemon gave off before the sharp pain of a rock landed on the back of her head.

The pain so great, so sudden, it blots her vision with black dots before she blacks out.

* * *

 

_**Presently** _

Sakura rubbed her sore head. The back had formed a large bump for however long she had been out as she listens to Naruto's frantic reassurances that he would get her out of there, that he would save her and that there was no reason to be scared.

She smiled fondly at the thick wall of solid stone that blocked her from reuniting with her friends. Brushing her hair from her damp forehead, the girl turned her back on the wall for a moment to search for her egg, relieved to find it had not been crushed in the cave in.

Getting to her feet took a moment, her head was sore and adrenaline still rushed through her veins at their near death by giant rock. Breathing deeply and exhaling a few times, Sakura came to the conclusion that despite the fact she was probably in a much worse position than the boys right now, she was unafraid.

Kneeling in front of the egg she reached out to grab it so she could put it back into the incubator that lay open, but hissed and reeled her hands back in when the heat that radiated off the egg was too hot to touch. Her hands ached as she cradled them to her chest, staring down at the glowing shell. She bit her lip and called back to the boys when she hadn't replied to any of their prompting.

"Naruto, Sasuke, I'm fine. Really. Just got a big lump on my head." She reassured.

Opening her messenger bag, the trainer pulled out her camisole. It was the only thing she had that she could think of to hold the egg so she could drop it back into its containment. After setting the incubator up right she made quick work of grabbing the still very hot egg into it and closing it off.

Her hands throbbed painfully, but she would live.

Picking up the incubator she turned back to the stone wall.

"I don't think any of us will be able to dig through this rock." Came Sasuke's muffled voice. It was soft and almost hard to hear. She nodded to herself.

"You'll have to make your way through the tunnel on your own Sakura. It should lead to an opening back above ground eventually. I'll lead Naruto and Sasuke to it." Garaa spoke up this time. He seemed far more put together than Naruto, or even the slightly tense sound of Sasuke's muffled monotone did. For that she was grateful and heaved a sigh of relief. At least there was a way out.

"Right…Yeah, I can do that. My pokemon would have the advantage against most of the pokemon in this area anyways if they decided to attack me anyways. I'll be fine on my own." The trainer nodded more to reassure herself. She bit her lip though as she could hear the fading scuffle of receding footsteps. In minutes she was all alone in the darkness around her clutching her pokemon egg like a life line as she turned into the direction of the continuing tunnel.

The echoed 'wooshing' of wings and reverberating racket of echolocation informed her that the further she was going to head in, the more pokemon she was sure to come into contact with.

Shacking the thoughts of fear and unease, the released her Budew from its pokeball. In the faint light it looked up at her, clamping and unclamping the bud on top of her head revealing the un-blossomed flowers tucked away inside. It was a nervous gesture the pink haired girl knew well. Squaring her shoulders, Sakura looked forward again.

"Come on Budew, time to find our way out of this mess." Her voice resolute. There was no Naruto to reassure her everything would be fine. No Sasuke to scoff and say her fears of this dark tunnel were stupid.

She moved forward, Budew running up in front of her, mirroring the fearless expression she wore when they faced that Ursaring, or those trainers in Taizaku Gai.

The rumbling that caused this situation continued periodically and that gravely groan still made shivered run down her spine. But she pushed forward in the light of her egg as they delved deeper into the tunnel where the air was stale and the ground softened to rock and sand.

Roots would occasionally trip up Budew, but the little grass type. However, with it more concerned about the occasional Diglet or Drilbur getting too close would hop back to her feet, mouth glowing from a prepared bullet seed in an attempt to act threatening.

It was as brave as it was endearing to Sakura. And eventually, their travel through the cave was rewarded when they could feel the path incline up towards the surface and the ground and walls of sand come back into the visible spectrum when the two saw the light at the end of the literal tunnel.

However, it was as she stepped out into the blistering heat of the high noon sun that she and Budew learned just exactly was woken up by Naruto's loud voice when it echoed through the tunnels in the cave.

An Onix. It was the largest she had ever seen, it towered over her, over the very walls of the basin she had now entered. The Onix let out another loud, earth shaking roar, it sounded irate, like it unwillingly was woken up. Looking up at the massive rock snake before her, the trainer gripped the incubator in her hands tighter before looking for a way up the walls of the sandy basin without disrupting the raging pokemon anymore.

She looked down at her partner, its bulbous body shook, never had either of them been confronted by such a beast. The territorial Ursaring had been one thing, but this, this was way over their heads. They both knew. And that's why both pokemon and trainer ran hurriedly, hugging the sandy walls, looking for a part that wasn't as steep a climb, or protruding rocks to make an easier escape.

It was not to be however, when the grey stone tail of the Onix came crashing down in front of Sakura and Budew, blocking their way. Sakura's already unsteady footing caused her to slip and stumble to the ground as she turned her attention to the glaring snake, her form trapped in the awoken pokemons' gaze. An absolutely guttural, gravelly noise came from deep within the wild pokemon and inwardly the young trainer cursed her luck.

Maybe she should apologize to Sasuke for that slap? Apparently she did attract trouble.

Before another thought could enter her mind, the tail of the angry Onix was already whipping towards her and her pokemon, intent of flattening them. The trainer slid away, towards the main body, egg tight in her grip before she heard the tell tale sound of seeds pelting against the solid mass that tried to kill them.

Budew stood her ground even as her tiny feet sunk into the sand. The bullet seed keeping the tail at bay as Sakura stared open mouthed. Unsure of what else to do with herself, she looked up to the lip of the basin, trying to spot her friends, call out for help. Yet her frantic search ended up with nothing except for her distraction. In turn, that led to Budew losing its resistance and Onix's tail throwing her into the sandy wall.

Snapped out of her panic she watched her partner disappear into the sand and shrieked, bringing attention to herself, but not caring. She called on her Deerling, the doe's legs wobbled in the uneven terrain, but looked up to the challenging pokemon, to Sakura with determined eyes.

"Keep it distracted, I need to get Budew." She commanded. The pink furred deer nodded before charging, its mouth open to attack with an energy ball. Sakura turned then, to the sand Budew had been buried in and set the incubator down before digging frantically into the scorching sand.

Her back sweating as heat bared down on her as she called for Budew, hoped she was ok and alive. Because what would she do without her precious friend.

"Budew! Budew, can you hear me!?" she called out as she sunk her arm further in. Sand slid down the wall, getting into her hair and eyes and rubbing up against her in uncomfortable ways before something so amazing, so breath taking happened that she almost sobbed.

The battle cries of the other pokemon were drowned out the moment a glowing appendage burst out of the sand. The trainer choked on her gasp as the sand cleared away. She watched in stunned silence as the bulbous figure the breathtaking light enveloped stretched and reshaped in front of her.

Sakura felt her legs give out just then as the light broke away and what was standing before her was no longer Budew. It raised its spiked head and opened its bright green eyes to look up at her with calm familiarity. It smiled at her and raised its blooming hands to graze Sakura's own in the sand.

Smooth petals, as soft as a well cared for rose brushed against her hand and she finally gasped. Holding out her hands to hold the grown, but still petite body as her clear, bell-like greeting called out to her.

"Y-You…evolved…" Sakura breathed. Roselia called out, her voice so pretty, like a spring time garden in the middle of a park and the trainer couldn't help but hold her Roselia in a tight hug. Relief making her shoulders hitch in a dry sob.

"I-I thought you were going to die! That Onix hit you so hard." She pet the back of Roselia's head, could feel the warmth and familiar texture of Budew's body. Thin arms wrapped around her next.

The moment was broken however, when Sakura was sorely reminded that they were in no way in a safe enough place to celebrate this moment when Deeling cried out. Turning swiftly, the trainer saw Deerling struggling to stand, its legs wobbled and was scrapped here and there. She ran to it, Roselia in her arms now. She crouched down beside her fallen pokemon, Roselia got out of the embrace and stood in front of the doe.

"Thank you Deerling, you did good, so rest up and we'll get you to a pokemon center as soon as possible." She reassured the deer pokemon who nuzzled her hand before it was returned in a flash of light.

Sakura's full attention back on the Onix, she eyed her evolved pokemon.

Roselia stood gracefully, an air of confidence Budew had never quite mastered now very prevalent as she looked up with a ready smile and raised arms. Sakura smiled back and faced their opponent. Quickly, she opened up her pokedex and pointed it as her pokemon, unsure what new attacks she could have been gifted with.

"Roselia, Magical Leaf, go!" she pointed at the Onix as it swung its tail towards them. The grass type held up its roses, the dual colored blooms glowed with varying hues of green and purple before she arched them in a swift attack. Sharp, spinning leaves that clung to that mystical glow made a b-line for the tail careening towards them and pushed it back as the rock snake before then roared out in pain. The tail crashed into the earth at their feet and kicked up a mini sandstorm. Sakura was forced to cover her eyes and mouth from the biting grit Roselia was lost in.

Not, of course, for long. The changed effect lasted only minutes before the sun and its rays beat down into the basin just that much stronger and a light from within the sand storm blasted a hole right through it and into the wild pokemons path. The beam of light so blinding, the trainer only knew it happened buy the light that pierced behind her eyelids.

Solar Beam. Her Roselia knew Solar Beam.

The girl only knew the battle was over and won when there was a crash and the earth ceased to shake at her feet. Once the air cleared and her eyes were dry from where the sand made them water did Sakura look behind her arm shield to see her Roselia fuss over the sand trapped in her flower petals before looking up at her with a victory cry. One in which Sakura had no shame in joining in on as she jumped up in happiness.

The fallen Onix feet away and unconscious.

It was only after she picked up the incubator and was brushing off the sand that she heard the calls of Naruto as they arrived at the base of the basin.

"Oooi, Sakura, you he—WHAT IN THE DISTORTION WORLD HAPPENED!?" The blond trainer screeched as the three boys stumbled in their mission to save the lone female. Only to happen upon the intimidating form of the knocked out wild Onix.

Sasuke was looking between the Onix and the absolutely tiny form of Sakura holding her egg and smiling.

"Guys! Budew evolved!" She called up excitedly, the thorn pokemon waved up at her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait everyone. After the last update I made I was all written out and decided to read a bunch of Spider-Man fan fiction on AO3. That is literally all I have read on there….Mmm, that and an unhealthy amount of explicit Spideypool…Oh, wait, underage children may be reading this…whoops~
> 
> So, back to this…some people will either be really excited, or really annoyed about what happens. Me one the other hand, am very pleased with what I had planned.
> 
> Also, for some of you impatient people, you will be pleased to know that Sasuke's first gym battle will be in the next chapter. How excited does that make you guys? After 17 chapters of just travel and the occasional pokemon battle you will be getting your long awaited action! I hope I do the first battle justice; I just cannot seem to write good action sequences.
> 
> Please be sure to give me your reactions to this chapter, I know some of you will and it's always fun to read your reactions to the shit I pull.


	18. The First Hurdle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…I've been focusing a lot on Sakura. I named this about a journey of three people and here I am neglecting two other important characters in Sasuke and Naruto.
> 
> So thanks hallowmask123 on Fanfiction.net for calling out my shit. I worked doubly hard to get this Sasuke centric chapter out!
> 
> To make up for it I plan to have the rest of the chapters in the Wind province to be all about them. They have the more important things happening now anyways and it wouldn't make sense to continue on with Sakura when Sasuke's gym battle is here and Naruto finally—whoops, spoilers~

Suna was a desert city all right. The ground was fortified and solid, its buildings not towering, but sturdy with rounded edges. Buildings lower to ground level looked aged and made of terracotta bricks, their windows lined with cacti and Maractus's caring for them.

Garaa, who stood at the head of the group of trainers with his pouch of evolution stones they had picked up earlier before arriving hung down his bag, nodded his head towards the main road.

"Welcome to Suna everyone." He mumbled to the trio as they took it the front of the old city. Sasuke wasn't particularly impressed. It was too hot to show much else other than a glaring need to find air conditioned building.

Looking over to the other two, however, was a different story. It was like anything new and shiny to them was of interest. Naruto while sweating buckets was staring with a wide eyed grin at the maractus and other pokemon that either walked with their partners or flew by. A cacnea shuffled past them on its own business. Sakura looked about as happy to be there as he would expect someone like her to be.

But he didn't want to dwell, he had more important things to deal with. He turned to the red haired male.

"Where's the gym?" he questioned. Garaa seemed to unconsciously roll his eyes as he pulled out a hand from his pocket.

"You really think you'll be able to hold your own in a gym battle? You don't even have a badge from Konoha's gym leader." the red head asked. Sasuke narrowed his eyes testily. It wasn't often he was openly challenged, Sasuke was good, he knew he was good, better than some average trainer just starting out at least.

"I don't think you're quite qualified to judge me." He frowned, waiting impatiently for directions to the gym. The red head's lips tilted up in an unsatisfied scowl of his own before crossing his arms.

"I'm sure an Uchiha would think that way."

The family name was notorious after all. Uchiha's were known to become quite the battlers when unleashed upon the unsuspecting public trainer scene. There have been many high ranks amongst trainer fields where there was always a Uchiha somewhere on top.

Sasuke expected no less from his family, it was why his damned older brother now currently sat on the thrown as one of the regions elite four. His father was a retired gym leader and many other relatives have made quite the scene in their own fields after branching out into other regions across the sea.

And nothing less but perfection was expected of him. It was a legacy the young, dark haired trainer would live up to.

No one questioned his skill, he was a Uchiha.

"Go rest up your pokemon Sasuke, I'm sure the gym leader can wait until tomorrow when you are better prepared." He smirked before waving to the mostly distracted Naruto and Sakura. He heard them wish him well and maybe that they would bump into each other during their stay.

Sasuke just watched his retreating back, unimpressed.

"…Sasuke."

His thoughts interrupted, he looked down at Naruto who pointed a thump out to the main road.

"You know Garaa's right, even I wouldn't challenge a gym leader after the day we've had."

"You aren't challenging them." He muttered crossly, a sting of annoyance at the realization the loser was right. His pokemon had to have been exhausted after tracking Sakura down after their separation and then scavenging for evolution stones.

And all of them were noticeably dragging along the incubators holding their eggs.

The dark haired teenager followed mutely behind his companions.

* * *

 

Sasuke separated from Naruto and Sakura after their trip to Suna's pokemon center and Garaa had run off into town well before that. Sasuke was most likely off badgering local trainers to battle him as preparation for the cities gym challenge he was sure to take part in now that they had made it this far.

In all honestly it made Naruto want to curl his lips up into a sneer. He'd lived through championships and saw firsthand the kinds of things greedy trainers would try to do to get the upper hand on the currently running champ. Sometimes there was just no honor in fighting to be the strongest anymore; he learned that the hard way.

In his opinion, strength should not be defined as how hard your pokemon can hit, or how quickly one could knock out the other. And making mindless sport out of it, while fun in its own way, got old if that was all he was doing with his pokemon.

Outside, in the burning sun he and Sakura had practically forgone all their layers to wear tank tops and shorts under a traditional Suna poncho to keep the beating sun off their backs. It helped, though the blond trainer still found himself guzzling down his second water bottle as the two walked around to city, wasting time until the sun fell or they found Sasuke.

Suna was one of the oldest cities in the region, and while that didn't really mean much to Naruto, Sakura seemed to take a great pleasure in staring an pointing at the open windowed bakeries and food carts.

The pink haired teenager and her newly evolved Roselia were flitting around as if the heat no longer effected them, though the petals adorning the ends of the thorn pokemon seemed just a tad wilted. Naruto felt tired and giddy all at once and he would join in on the fanfare like the obvious tourist they were. And okay…si he was just a little impressed and interested in when they passed through the Pokemon Ranger HQ located in town.

There were several uniformed rangers strapping on saddles to their large flying types as another shouted names and group numbers. They appeared to be getting ready to head off somewhere as one ranger. A woman that didn't look much older than them with dusty colored hair tied tightly in four pony-tails to keep it out of her face stood leaning against an imposing fearow as the two hydrated in the shade of the building. Dust crusted them to the point that he could tell the girls features very well.

By lunch time, he and Sakura, for the most part forgot about their search for Sasuke and his possible harassment called training to have lunch in a park where a group of kids were playing.

Naruto waited hungrily as he kept his eye on his and his friends' pokemon while she went to pick up something to eat from a food cart across the street. They were extremely lucky Suna's park provided a hydration station for water and grass types not local to the province. Shellos was stretched out on his stomach in a shallow pool, blowing bubbles lackadaisically. Roselia was periodically dipping the flowers that made her hands into the water. His own vulpix lay at his side letting him scratch the backs of her ears.

He was just starting to dig around for another water bottle when he heard it. His blond head whipped up to look at his charges. Sakura hadn't made a show of being back yet and none of her pokemon seemed to have made any indication of making that high pitch cry that had caught his attention in the first place. Furrowing his brow, the blond had half a mind to get up and check around for whatever made the noise, but Sakura came back with lunch and eventually the thought left him entirely.

* * *

 

A small crowd of on lookers had gathered in the midst of Cottonee zooming over the head of the heavily breathing Dwebble. The little hermit crab creature kicked up the dirt off the ground to hide itself from the dual types golden eyes.

However, it was invain, and Sasuke knew so by the victorious smirk that crossed his lips. The crowd gasped, questions popping up in attempt to see beyond the cloud of dust.

"Cottonee, catch the breeze and get above the cloud." Sasuke demanded from where he stood. His opponent clenched his teeth.

"Don't give them the chance, smack down!"

Too late, the cotton bodied pokemon flew out from the blinding cover, shaking off the dust before cutting the air with its leafy appendages. It send a flurry of sharpened leaves into the dust cover as it swooped out of the way of palm sized rocks the opposing pokemon flung into the air.

There was a cry as leaves hit their mark, and when the dust finally cleared dwebble was laying unconscious on the ground. The gathered on lookers either cheered or called it a good match. The trainer Sasuke beat groaned and called back his dual type. Cottonee floated back down to eye level, looking as if he had done something extremely impressive, though his trainer's bland look in his direction thought it was anything but. The dual type puffed out its fluffy bosy in displeasure at his trainers lake of praise that left the two in a glaring contest, one expecting its praise, the other stubbornly not giving it.

Sasuke scowled.

"If you want to be coddled why not go over to Sakura, she'll baby you." He muttered, pointing his thumb behind his shoulder expecting to watch the little brat flutter over to the girl that generally gave his mothers gift all the attention it wanted that he wasn't one to give. However, the unimpressed stare the cotton ball gave had him furrow his brow, he turned around, expecting to see a pouting Naruto because he won another battle and a certain pink haired trainer rolling her eyes at his back.

There was no one but the bystanders that had watched his battle clearing out and going back to their previous business. Dark eyebrows rose as he straightened his back…Oh, right, he ditched them back at the center to get ready for his fist gym match. A little feeling of disappointment flickered in the back of his mind before he shoved it away. The dark haired trainer stuffed his hands into his pants pockets, he tried to ignore the motion of his shoulders hitching up in his usual expression of a pout. Right, no…he was not disappointed they didn't see him kick that dwebbles ass. It was a stupid dwebble, and cottonee had a type advantage so it would have been easy anyways. No reason to even have someone, even those other bystanders to be impressed.

Suddenly, Sasuke didn't have much of a good enough drive to seek out other challenges.

Ignoring the knee jerk reaction of kicking a nearby pebble in disappointment Sasuke muttered darkly to himself. It wasn't as if he actually didn't mind their presence after all this time. That would be stupid, he didn't need them to do what he came here to do.

Breaking him away from his thoughts, cottonee ran into the back of his head as he began to walk off. Sasuke cursed as he grasped the back of his head as he lurched forward. Cottonee made a pleased noise as it flew off in another direction.

"Hey, cottonee, come back here!" he growled at the stubborn creature and sped after the thing as it rounded the corner only to have to stumble to a stop in disbelief. It was as if they had some kind of phychic link to his brain, if he thought of them, they would appear. Sasuke wasn't sure that was a good thing or not seeing as he really couldn't stand Naruto, and Sakura was only mildly less difficult to deal with.

Nonetheless, there the pink haired girl was, with a bratty little ball of fluff nuzzling into her arms while her bright green eyes stared down at it in unexpected surprise. Both trainers looked up to see Sasuke. Sakura's brow raised in question, however, without an actual answer he just grunts, vaguely shrugging before straightening up just a bit. They didn't need to see him looking displeased because they weren't there to see him, like he needed them. He didn't.

"Yo, where have you been?" Naruto interrupted, brushing off the fact there seemed to be a cottonee in the arms of the girl who was clearly not his trainer.

"Where do you think?" Sasuke grunted.

"Terrorizing the city? Have you made any children cry, or burned down an orphanage?" the blond snarked. Sasuke fought hard not to grace the snark with an eye roll and glared at the spoiled pokemon Sakura unconsciously pet. She really shouldn't encourage this behavior from one of his pokemon.

Unbuckling cottonee's pokeball from his belt, the teenager pointed it towards the little gemlin. A light shot out towards it and Sakura closed her eyes from the brightness until his pokemon disappeared from her arms. She peeked open her eyes once she was sure the light had gone before waving over to Sasuke in greeting.

"Just finish a battle or something?" she ask.

"…Os something." He shrugged, glaring at the sphere as he hooked it back to his belt. "What is with him a the attention seeking?" he muttered.

"Well, pokemon are like people Sasuke, some crave affection and attention, some don't." Sakura answered with a shrug.

"I don't do 'affection'." He crossed his arms.

"You don't do a lot of things, loser." Naruto commented, but shrieked when Sasuke shoved him off the sidewalk and into the road where he almost barreled into a working diggersby. Sakura sighed at their antics.

"Any progress in your training? Think you're ready for your gym challenge?" she asked him. Sasuke scoffed as if it was any question.

"The gym leader will be easy work if they're anything like the pushovers I've fought today."

And of course the trainers here were easy. At home, he had always trained for hours with both his mother and fathers' pokemon when they gave him permission. Now if you wanted to talk difficulty spike, it was trying to get murkrow to land a hit on his father's blaziken. It was a crazy fast demon on the battle field, and it had to be. With the Konoha gym in other hands (less capable seeing as Kakashi hadn't even been looking after it before he left), his father returned to his previous career as a policeman and was now chief of police back home. His blaziken was often times used as one of the S.W.A.T teams ambush and detain pokemon.

So anything this gym leader could possibly throw at him shouldn't be nearly as problematic as an experienced S.W.A.T pokemon.

Sakura seemed less impressed and more pensive at his attitude and pursed her lips as if she was contemplating saying something to him about what he thought, but a sharp look from him had her looking away with a less than content look.

He watched her sigh before turning back to him.

"It's getting a bit late, want to take a break from training, I bet you skipped out on eating anything all day." She suggested, and curse his stomach for giving himself away and her uncanny ability to just know these things. Sasuke's stomach growled and Naruto snickered at the grumpy frown that marred his features. Sakura set her hands on her hips and gave him a look, like she thought he was as much an idiot as the blond at her side.

"Yeah, break time, I'm sure your pokemon would appreciate some food in their stomachs too." She says to him and Sasuke can't fault her for being wrong. He sighs.

"Fine."

* * *

 

The day dwindled into nighttime in no time at all. And while Sasuke was annoyed an early dinner turned into Naruto challenging him to an eating contest, which turned into him stupidly developing a stomach ache and thus loosing said contest it did help him realize just how tired a day of nonstop training was. His pokemon were busy being checked up by the nurses and the flaffy on call.

Sasuke banged his head against the cafeteria table, the plates stacked higher than his head clattered, but did not tumble down. He cursed himself, he cursed Naruto. Picking his head up to glare scathingly at the equally suffering blond across from him he had to wonder how in this arceus forsaken word the loser convinced him to play his game.

He doesn't even like roasted tomato berries.

With what little energy the brooding teenager could muster, and the fact Sakura was currently out buying stomach medicine for both of them, he kicked the blond in the shin. Naruto yelped, his whole body going into one big flinch, only to watch him realize what a mistake moving was and flung a hand to his mouth.

"If you are going to be sick, then do so on the floor you bastard." Sasuke groaned. Blue eyes pinpointed him with equal fire.

"Mmugh mmph…" he muttered through his hand, the Uchiha raised an unimpressed brow and kicked him again. His companion made a noise.

"I swear if I'm too sick to beat the gym leader tomorrow I will end you." He threatened with a grimace. Sasuke watched sharply as Naruto leaned back slowly into his seat and cross his arms. The blond gave the dark haired trainer an upturned look.

"Ha, I don't know why you think you're all that, if anything, I'm gonna be the one rooting for the gym leader."

The dark look stayed firmly in place on the young Uchiha's face and it was with that exact look that Sakura saw when she appeared at their sides with the life saving medicine. It tasted like crap, but he wouldn't give the clearly annoyed girl the pleasure of seeing anything past his nose wrinkling in distaste, while the other boy in his company gagged dramatically and fell into the petite girls' arms.

It brought a slight twitch to his brow, watching him whine like a child, and it was for that reason, with a pleased smirk, that he shoved the blond into the girls' restroom as the trio were making their way back to their room for the night.

From the high pitched shrieks that came from inside either Naruto was surprised or he and a bunch of girls were left staring at each other in shock. Sakura looked at him with a less than impressed face from beside him, but he ignored it for the feeling of malicious amusement he felt at the sound of muffled, hurried apologies coming from down the hall.

"Really Sasuke…?" she sighed at him, the dark haired boy didn't grace her with any more than a noncommittal hum.

* * *

 

He wasn't sure what it was exactly that woke him up. He had gotten use to Naruto's snores as much as it annoys him to admit, and the only thing he could ever fault Sakura's sleeping habits with was curling up into a ball or cuddling. That was a weird thing to wake up to when they had to share a bed at the pokemon centers guest boarding earlier on in their travels.

Sasuke squeezes his eyes tight as another odd, bright flash bled through the thin skin of his lids to irritate his eyes. The sleep muddled teenager groaned as this flash lasted longer than the ones that had awoken him with quick, strobe-like flashes. The only egg he was aware of that even gave off a light was the one given to Sakura.

But even looking through his sleep hazed vision he could tell the warm, steady pulse of soft orange light was a stark contrast to the blinding white that flashed across his vision, washing out the orange that colored Sakura and Naruto's bunk bed. It was then the sleep that addled his mind cleared and in its place, surprise as the teenager's arms shot his torso out of bed to look over the edge. He vaguely recalled setting his egg down by the head of his bed, just as Sakura did. The blond weirdo with them had opted to snuggle with his excitably, causing the female of the group to make a worried precaution of taping the lid of his incubator closed so the egg constantly being kept moist did not fall out.

Sasuke rubbed his eyes, looking back towards the other two to see if this bright light was waking them up, Naruto he doubted, and he came to find that during the night, Sakura had buried her head under her blankets.

Pursing his lips to stop the excitable smile that wanted t form, Sasuke reached over his bed to lift his egg's incubator and let out an awed gasp at the white light that was enveloping it as it wriggled, tapping the glass case occasionally. Swiftly, his pale hand reached up and carelessly chucked the lid onto his bed to open up the top and give whatever pokemon that was about to be hatched some room.

The glowing came to a head as the wriggling increased, Sasuke grunted as he had to lift his arm to shield his eyes as the light filled their enclosed space. He only felt the need to open them again when he felt the light pressure of claws curiously poke his chest. Black eyes snapped open once more as he turned his head back down to his new pokemon with barely contained awe.

It's large, feline-like eyes and narrow pupils looked up at him, its little nose twitched as its claws grasped the edge of the incubator and stood on its toes to lean in an sniff curiously at him.

It let out a satisfied sound, something akin to a purr and a growl, but pleased nonetheless and rubbed its cheek lovingly against him. That was when his breath caught back up with him. Sasuke had never seen this pokemon before, he had never witnessed the birth of one either. The stoic trainer was feeling amazed and curious all at once and maybe even affection as he brought his hands around the creature's body to lift it out of the container. It's fur was slightly cooler than the room and its claws hooked over his wrists affectionately.

Sasuke couldn't help the wobbly smile that made its way to his lips. He'd admit it…the little pokemon with its dark fur and big eyes and little noises was kind of cute, in a strictly baby pokemon sort of way he scratched it behind its one red, feather shaped ear and the tail fringe twitched as it closed its eyes happily.

Sasuke reached over the other side of his bag to dig through it until he pulled out his pokedex. The faint light turned on so words could be read and be could work the touch screen to get it to scan the pokemon sitting willingly on his lap and hanging its claws off his bus wrist.

The divice spouted out its information and a pleased smirk comes across his features. Looking back to the newly hatched pokemon he nodded.

"Well this will make my challenge tomorrow just that much easier." He murmured soft enough so as not to wake the other two humans in the room. He slid the pokemon of his lap then and pulled on his shoes, making sure to stuff his pokedex in his jacket pocket before also pulling that over his form and grabbing his pokeballs.

Turning towards the curiously staring creature he held out an arm for it to latch on to. He lifted it up into his arms before silently making his way to the door.

"Come on, I don't wanna wait to see what you're capable of."

* * *

 

By ten am Sasuke was leaving the rooms shared bathroom with freshly washed clothes and body, a white towel scrubbing his hair dry. His eyes were heavy even after consuming around three and a half cups of coffee throughout the night as he introduced his new pokemon to his existing ones and found out just what the little thing was capable of. And by the time he finally decided to call it a day as the sun started rising and the chill of the desert air warmed he was satisfied to let his pokemon rest before the big battle today.

Across from him one of the still sleeping people stirred and there was a soft groan before the blankets of the bottom bunk were pushed away to reveal his pink haired traveling companion sitting up to rub her eyes. Her bright green eyes blinked up to him, either not registering he was only wearing pants or not caring at this point what with Naruto having the habit of sleeping in just his boxers.

"Ahh…Morn'in Sasuke." She yawned before shuffling into the bathroom now that it was free.

The dark haired boy turned back towards his bed without bothering to reply after the door shut and continued to dry his hair. He could hear the sink faucet running and there was a moment of peace until a sudden clatter from inside the bathroom made him look up to the door with furrowed brows. It slammed open then, and Sakura peered through with red cheeks and an absolutely scandalized expression that only had Sasuke raising a brow at her.

The short girl hitched her shoulders up before breathing in a deep breath.

"Sasuke, I have seen my fair share of guy skin thanks to Naruto during this entire trip combined than I have ever seen back home. Please to not start with me now at ten in the morning and put a damn shirt on." She hissed, green eyes squinting as if she couldn't believe he was subjecting her to his shirtless chest.

"It wasn't like I was planning on not wearing a shirt Sakura." He pointed out dully. The half asleep girl nodded resolutely.

"Good…carry on." She slid back into the confines of the bathroom and shut the door.

Sasuke furrowed his brow…girls are weird.

Pulling on his shirt there was another rustle of bed sheets and a tired groan as Naruto finally greeted the morning by falling face first off the top bunk.

* * *

 

It took them some time and really, as much as he was loath to admit it, actually asking for directions courtesy of the only female of this reluctant trio he found himself in to figure out the directions leading towards the gym.

Sasuke stared up at the large circular mud brick building with worn traditional Suna mosaics lined the circumference in what was once bright, bold desert colors such as oranges, reds, and even purples. It was a sight to behold and if Sasuke was an architecture buff he would have been impressed with the upkeep of what had to be a building hundreds of years old compared to the more modern buildings in the main city.

There was no actual door to the building, he realized as he was the first to walk in, shifting the thick drapery with zigzag and hour glass patterns. There was a mythical pokemon motif to it. Some kind of rock creature with no face, only dots in an unknown pattern. Sasuke didn't know what it was so he didn't bother looking much closer as he lead the way to the front room.

It was open and sunny with more drapes of bold patterned colors similar to the kind used to block the entrance. There were low tables over pretty rugs and fluffy looking pillows. It was a bright space, what with the windows uncovered, yet oddly temperate considering the heat outside. There was a single man, probably just a few years older than them sitting at one of the low rising tables sipping soda through a straw while typing on a laptop. A shuppet levitated lazily over they're head, a contented smile on its face.

"Hey," Sasuke grunted, getting the older teenagers attention. Looking up he could hear his companions give small sounds of surprise at the tribal-like face tattoos that decorated his face. The teenager smirked, closing the laptop to lean his head on his hands.

"Yo, you must be a new challenger." He said. Sasuke nodded, scrutinizing the man.

"You the gym leader? You don't look so tough."

"Sasuke…" Saskura sighed behind him, he didn't bother to apologize. Naruto simply snorted out an annoyed 'of course the jerk would say that'.

The tattooed teenager barked out a laugh that left Sasuke scowling.

"Sorry, sorry," the other snorted. "No kid, you'll be battling my little brother. My names Kankuro, his assistant. If our sister was here she'd usually be the one to guide you to him…" a worried expression crossed his features as he glanced out the window. "But uh…she's out doing her thing trying to stop the sandstorms…anyways." Kankuro stood, bringing the floating shuppet out of its daze to blink up at him and then to the three trainers. It made a pleased noise at the arrival of new people and flew over to fly around them.

Sasuke flinched back just slightly when the horn atop its head got a little too close before it moved on to the dobe and Sakura, the latter of which giggled. Naruto made a strangled noise similar to a whimper-groan. Apparently someone didn't like ghost types.

"So, Sasuke right?" Kankuro spokeup, eyeing Sasuke as if it was enough to tell how much of a challenge he would be. The three had the decency to looked surprised, or, at least, Sasuke knew his eyes had widened just a fraction and Naruto started shrieking about creepy ghost powers.

"How the hell do you know my name?" he ground out, not sure how to take this. Again, Sakura made a noise behind him, possibly a sigh. His brows pinch and Kankuro raises a brow.

"Well, my brother told me." He stated slowly and turned around, gesturing for the group to follow. They were lead down another archway without an actual door and just a heavy cloth, the same mythical rock-like pokemon stitched into the design, and down a hall lit dimly. They passed the occasional door, some labeled, some not. There was a branching hall at one point that their guide informed them was just the hall that lead to the next floor used as the domestic floor of the building, apparently the gym leader and his siblings lived here as well.

"Your brother…" Sasuke still made an obviously confused face.

"Wow, you guys are pretty slow on the up take." Kankuro whistled.

"Please don't bunch me up with these two." Sakura groaned, and this time Sasuke spared her a glance, her eyes rolled when he and Naruto gave her a strange look.

"Did no one pay attention at the academy when the announcement of the updated gym leader roster was announced before finals last year?" she sighed. The dark haired challenger furrowed his brow in thought for a moment.

"Ah…I was released early because of…family reasons…" Sasuke inwardly flinched. The year he graduated from the academy was the same year Itachi had been announced as the regions newest member of the elite four. Apparently the member whose place he took had been banned for some conspiracy that the league was still investigating. At least that what he could remember hearing that night while eavesdropping on his brother and father.

Naruto had made a noise.

"Ehh, I think I fell asleep or something."

"You two are ridiculous." Sakura rubbed her forehead in exasperation.

"This doesn't answer my question." Sasuke grumbled. Kankuro gave them an exasperated look before coming to the end of the hall with yet another drape and pulled it out of their way to let the trio enter first.

"Maybe you should ask him yourself." He snickered. Unsure what the older teenager was getting at, Sasuke shoved his way past and into the open space that was the gym leader's space. It was just as bright as the first room, with high windows and a sunroof where sunlight beat down on a small oval pool of water that split the width of the battle field down the center.

The dark haired trainer caught movement from the other side of the room and watched in wordless surprise as Garaa of all people got to his feet. A sly smirk seem even from across the battle stage of sand, rock, and water.

"Sasuke." He greeted as the other two and Garaa's older brother made their way to Sasuke's side. Naruto's reactions was as expected, loud surprise, followed by getting over it stupidly fast to wave his hands excitedly.

"I'm rooting for you Garaa, kick Sasuke's ass!"

Garaa chuckled.

The only one who didn't act surprise was the pink haired girl at his other side, he turned to her with displeasure.

"How long have you known?" he hissed, the still timid girl jumped at his sudden aggressiveness. She turned her jade eyes to him.

"Sense we he introduced himself." She answered. Still, the dark haired trainer crossed his arms.

"We graduated the academy last year, we were thirteen, are you telling me a gym was given to a thirteen year old?"

Sakura sighed through her nose and let Kankuro pass by to talk with the younger red headed sibling before she spoke. It was in a soft whisper, Sasuke frowned at her obvious attempts to keep the other two from hearing her.

"Last year the previous leader, their father if I am correct, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His older children had little interest in joining the pokemon league and handed the responsibility of to the youngest member of the family. That's how it was reported anyways." The girl informed.

A thought crossed Sasuke then.

"How do you know all this, you don't even want to compete in the league?" he spat.

"I still had to take the trainer course just like everyone else Sasuke, of course I would still know the ins and outs of the pokemon league. Whether I would use it or not." She shrugged before turning away to go towards the bystander's sitting area. Naruto followed suit and grin over to Sasuke.

"Good luck Stunky-Head." He mocked. Sasuke crossed his arms, unamused; turned towards were Garaa stood, waiting with that smug smirk.

"Still think I don't have the authority?" he mocked. The challenger growled under his breath.

"It remains to be seen."

"Then by all means," at this, the red haired gym leader reveals a pokebal in his hand as it expands in size. "Let us begin, challenger gets first choice."

Sasuke smirks and unhooks his first choice, he stares down at the pokeball as it expands before throwing it out into the field. There is a bright flash before his first pokemon materializes onto the challenger's side.

Its sharp, feline-like eyes stare up at Garaa with a mischievous grin and holds up its twin claws.

"Sneasel!" it hisses in challenge.

Naruto shrieked.

"Hey, wait! When did you get that pokemon!?"

He glanced over to the blond idiot with a snide look.

"Jealous loser?"

Naruto yelled something inappropriate enough to her a scandalized gasp and smack from their female companion before attention was brought back to the challenge at hand. Garaa threw out his opposing pokemon.

A small bear pokemon with a dark grey dual toned body and ears with an off white head punched the air.

"Pancham!" it cried, looking out and crossing eyes to sneasel. Sasuke frowned, unsure about the pokemon, he had never seen one before. Quickly, he swiped out his pokedex to scan the opponent.

'Pancham: The playful pokemon. It does its best to be taken seriously by its enemies by making scary faces. However, its glare is not sufficiently intimidating. It enjoys chewing on the leaves of its favorite food source, bamboo.'

Sasuke clicked his tongue when he scrolled down to its typing, but thought it best to deal with it. His sneasel could take it.

"Feint attack." He started with and in a flash, the dark blue-black furred creature sped towards the opposing Pancham. Its round eyes widened and braced itself, however, before it could be hit head on the weasel disappeared from its vision.

"Brace yourself Pancham." Garaa murmured as the pokemon bid its trainers command and tensed before sneasel appeared in a flash behind it. Her sharp eyes glinted with glee as it push forward with her foot and tackled the pokemon.

However, the panda dug its paws into the sand and slid barely a foot before Garaa called out a karate chop. The dark paw swung around, landing in the juncture between sneasel's neck and shoulder. The pokemon was thrown back with the force and was dragged through the sand.

"Brush it off and use icy wind." Sasuke called out watching his pokemon do as told. Sneasel shock off the sand and inhaled enough air that her cheeks puffed out before blowing out a cold blast of wind, ice sharp glittered in the light and hit pancham from across the stage. It flinched at the chill and brought its arms up to shield its face.

Sasuke watched the ice shards start sticking to the small pokemons arms.

"Get out of there pancham." Garaa ordered. His pokemon growled, glaring across the stage at sneasel before throwing its arms over its head, then into the sandy ground. The arm thrust kicked up the sand and offered a weak shield long enough for pancham to roll away from the wind and head towards the opponent.

Its arms trusts towards the flustered sneasel, she cut off her attack and held up her claws to block the first arm thrust.

Sasuke cursed.

"Keep blocking sneasel, slash feint attack when you find an opening."

Sneasel followed Sasuke's command. Pancham and sneasel stayed in close combat, pancham thrusting open palmed attacks repeatedly, and sneasel letting her hard claws take the brunt of the damage. The dark furred ice type narrowed its eyes, gritting her sharp teeth in attempts to find an opening. However, in attempts to find a chance to attack, the weasel left an opening, her defenses slipped allowing pancham to get in an attack. The single arm thrust left the young pokemon unbalanced and vulnerable to Garaa's command for drain punch.

Sasuke could think of nothing but calling out for sneasel as the newly hatched pokemon was thrown back across the pool of water to land painfully in the sand. The little thing rolled a few extra feet before stopping at her trainer's feet blinking back the sand in her eyes before falling unconscious.

Kankuro, who stood of to the side as an announcer for the battle raised a hand to his brothers' side.

"The first win goes to Gym Leader Garaa!"

Sasuke looks down at his unconscious pokemon with something akin to unfounded surprise. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but it snaps back as he fiddles with the pokeball in his hand to return sneasel without another word.

For a moment it felt as if he couldn't hear a thing. He never loses. That wasn't a thing Uchiha's do.

"Next pokemon, challenger." Kankuro's voice speaks up. Looking up swiftly to see Sakura and Naruto a bit surprised at the outcome of the first battle. Sasuke shakes off the shock, glaring over to Garaa whose arms crossed confidently. Pancham jumped up energetically, its fists punching at the air in front of it, ready for the next opponent.

Sasuke grit his teeth and hooked sneasels ball to his belt and grasped the other to throw out.

"Go!"

The beam of light formed above the pool of water in enough time for Carvanha to dive in. The savage pokemon poked its head out of the water long enough to snap its powerful jaw in pancham's direction with a vicious glare, then dived back down its hidden depths.

Sasuke clenched his fist as he ran through his carvanha's move set. He could win this.

"Pancham vs. Carvanha! Let the battle begin!" Kankuro announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How many of you guessed Sasuke's egg right? Actually...only a few, which I commented to them before for kudos's to them.
> 
> How'd I do? Honestly I am so conflicted with writing Sasuke and Naruto, and I really don't know if I can do Sasuke's character justice. Here's hoping I'll get the hang of it real soon.
> 
> Ah, and yes, I did say Sasuke's gym battle would be in this chapter...however, I never said the full thing would be. But yeah, originally this chapter was going to have the full battle, but it was already getting so long and i have an essay due monday I have to start writing. How does: 'The Solutions for Diminishing Negative Biased and Stereotypes Concerning Video Games' sound? A mouthful right? I dunno how to shorten it yet...
> 
> So! Till next time readers!


	19. Episode 19: Gourd[ge] Yourself on Victory

Carvanha flexed its jaw as it gave a menacing glare from the water towards pancham. Both trainers waited impatiently as Kankuro eyed his brother and Sasuke a second more before the flags were lifted up and he called for them to continue.

Pancham leaped up into the air and was ready to land a hit on the water type who dodged by diving deeper into the water provided. The panda pokemon's fist hit the water with a tall splash as it cried out in surprise, waving its paws around before heading for a small platform provided in the center of the pool. Garaa's jaw was set tensely as he watched his pokemon flail in the unfamiliar element.

Sasuke smirked. As he waited for Carvanha to make its move. It wasn't long and suddenly, the dark red and blue fish jump from the water behind the gym leaders' pokemon. The dark grey and cream, drenched panda had no time to gasp before the carvanha was on him with a wet smack, making it loose its grip on the platform.

"Dive, Carvanha." Sasuke ordered, and the strong jaw pokemon leaped up from the water before diving head first. It's jaw grasp onto its challengers leg and pulled them under with them.

That got a reaction out of the terse red headed gym leader. His pale green eyes widened as they watched the dark head of his pokemon sink underwater and the air bubbles on the surface on the water recede into nothing. He turned back to Sasuke.

"This is a regulated battle Sasuke, if my pokemon comes back up with more than just outward damage you're trainer's license can be provoked. The dark haired teen hitched his shoulders for a brief moment before shaking it off with a shrug.

"I wouldn't let carvanha kill your pokemon, they'll resurface before it drowns."

"That isn't nearly as reassuring as you think it sounds. Bring them up now, I do not wish to leave my pokemon's fate in your hands." Garaa seceded. That brought a smirk to Sasuke's lips.

"Fine with me."

The gym leader nodded and then looked to his tattooed brother who was watching the water with concern before Sasuke called for his pokemon. Carvanha jumped out, Pancham gasping and sputtering for air as it was smacked into the sand by carvanha's tail fin. The fighting type fainted soon after, drenched, but breathing evenly.

The gym leader threw out his pokeball to retrieve his water drenched pokemon as Kankuro announced Sasuke's win of this battle.

From the sidelines Sakura was holding Naruto's shoulder's as he yelled at Sasuke's cheap tactic.

"Cutting it kind of close you bastard!" the blond yelled with an accusing finger and a little more bite than expected from the usually cheery boy. Worry and rage burned in his fierce blue eyes. Sasuke turned his head with an annoyed scowl, both companions eyed him, different levels of worry shined through and he sighed. Rubbing the back of his head and turned away from their eyes with a little slump of shame.

"I wasn't going to let Carvanha drown the pancham, just keep it under until it couldn't hold its breath for much longer then bring it up." He explained, shoving his hands in his pockets. It wasn't like he was a monster or something. He would never willingly put a pokemon in that much danger, he knew better than that.

"How about you just not do that again, Sasuke." He heard her voice from the sidelines and hitched his shoulders up to his ears like a child.

"Whatever…" he muttered.

Garaa released his second pokemon.

Cubone stood there in the sand, holding up its bone club, looking ready to do some damage as it cried out to his carvanha. The vicious fish pokemon snapped back in challenge before both trainers were once again focused on the battle.

"Aqua Jet!" he commanded. Water swirled around carvanha as he burst out of the pool and made a b-line for Garaa's cubone. The ground type stood its ground on Garaa's command and let the jetting pokemon hit him straight on.

Thinking it would be an easy win with a direct water attack like that, Sasuke almost lost his impassive face when carvanha was knocked into the sand by a bone club attack. Carvanha flopped around with an astonished expression.

"Brick Break." Garaa crossed his arms. Cubone held up its bone club with both paws and proceeded to launch the dark type into the air with a powerful swing. With a splash, carvanha landed in the water out cold.

The dark haired trainer pursed his lips and silently recalled his pokemon. From the collection of pokeballs hooked to his belt he grabbed the remaining two. Murkrow and cottonee. Both were strong against ground types, but he didn't want to take the chance of any of Garaa's pokemon knowing a rock type move, he knew cubones could learn them.

Kankuro called out to him for his delay.

"Will the challenger present his next pokemon."

Sasuke clicked his tongue. No choice then, cottonee was the better choice. He threw the pokeball and the golden eyed pokemon floated in the air looking battle ready.

Garaa made the first move, cubone threw its bone and it twirled like a boomerang. Swiftly, Cottonee dodged as it released a flurry of razor leaves. When the bonemerang came back around, however, Sasuke was unable to warn his pokemon in time.

Cottonee made a noise, but it sounded more like annoyance than of actual pain and seemed to easily brush the contact off, making it look fluffier than before. Sasuke raised his brow at that, not realizing it had an endurance to physical moves like that and sent his grass type to finish the battle with the heavily breathing cubone with a single energy ball attack. Cubone, too slow and weak after a direct hit from carvanha's aqua jet threw its arms up to shield itself from a majority of the blow. Yet, still, the strength behind the ball of green energy flung the bone baring pokemon on its back to slide in the sand.

Cubone whimpered before fainting from the critical hit and was returned promptly back to its pokeball.

Sasuke heard Sakura cheer at his victory even as Naruto complained. Earlier shame at being lectured well and over, the dark haired trainer stood up a little taller as Cottonee preened of the female trainers praise.

"Good work Cottonee, do your best!" She called out over Naruto's 'Kick his ass Garaa!'. For a moment, Sasuke blinked, caught off guard before subtly smacking his hand over his face. He could feel his ears flush in embarrassment.

Because Sakura wasn't cheering for him, but for his pokemon. He was being ridiculous, he didn't need her cheering for him, he didn't need her help. Groaning at himself, the teenager shook his thoughts away to focus on Garaa throwing his final pokeball out to reveal his sandshrew. The black eyed shrew prepared itself as the battle was called to begin again.

They wasted little time as Sasuke had cottonee release a poison power that Sandshrew was not quick enough to evade by digging underground. Sandshrew coughed as it breathed in the toxic cloud of powder before finding the strength to run from the spores by digging underground.

Once the purple powder did clear up though, the real fight began with Garaa's next command.

"Swift!" the Gym Leader spoke up. Sandshrew popped out of the sandy ground, behind cottonee's hovering form and let a flurry of bright golden stars loose. The light from the sun roof gave the energy a pretty shimmer as Sasuke called for cottonee to swiftly counter with razor leave. It was a close call, and the colliding forces cause little explosions of sparks and glitter that blinded both pokemon for a brief moment.

Sandshrew, who was slowly suffering under the effects of the poison it breathed in was forced underground again to shield its eyes as cottonee covered his eyes with its leaves, stuck experiencing the bright lights of the attacks.

Sasuke pursed his lips as they were forced to wait out the attacks that caught the sun before widening his eyes just a fraction as he zeroed in on the sun roof of the building. It illuminated a majority of the gym in natural sunlight.

It was doing nothing for them though as the grass type was nothing more than a sitting ducklett as it rubbed its eyes. That was when Sandshrew poked its head out from the darkness of its hole.

"Sandshrew, knock it out of the air with Rock Throw!"

The ground type squeaked and scampered to one of the large, rocks dotting the battle field, smashing it to manageable bits with its hard claws before chucking one with a powerful throw towards Sasuke's recovering cottonee.

The first rock made its mark and hit the pokemon across the top of its head. This snapped the golden eyes pokemon out of its daze to watch several rocks careen towards him. On Sasuke command, it took a nosedive towards the battle field to avoid the first wave of the rock throw.

Sandshrew adjusted for the new height and threw more. Cottonee was left weaving through the attack before the rocks stopped coming for moment. Again, the effects of poison powder were affecting the opponent and Sasuke took his chance with and energy ball attack. The energy hit the pile of rocks sandshrew hid behind and knocked the weakening pokemon back. It rolled, unable to recover just yet before Cottonee swooped in closer with a powerful flurry of razor leaves. The glowing leaves kicked up more of the sand as they pelted Garaa's pokemon.

When cottonee was sure he had done all he could, the cotton ball pulled back to watch the dust clear.

All the trainers in the room were silent as they spotted sandshrew's figure through the dust. It was standing shakily, its face a sickly purple before it flinched and fell over unconscious.

Kankura lifted the challenger sides flag.

"Gym Leader Garaa has been defeated, Sasuke, the challenger has won the match!"

Sasuke stood just a little straighter as a pleased smirk painted his features. Cottonee blinked before fluffing its body out expectantly, as if there could be no other conclusion. Naruto groaned, not at all pleased as Garaa called his pokemon back to its pokeball to be treated later.

"Huh, not bad." He turned as Kankuro came up to him with a small box. Sasuke was waved over before he could return his grass type to its pokebal, who in turn fluttered over to Sakura to be spoiled rotten.

"Your reward." Garaa murmured, holding out a hand to Sasuke who held out his own. A small badge was dropped into his hand. Looking at it, it was shaped like a gourd, tan with the edges outlined in red. "The Gourd Badge."

Sasuke nodded, fishing out his badge case to clip it onto the fine, plush cloth inside.

"Man, I was really hoping you'd kick his ass Garaa, Sasuke's too arrogant looking for his own good." Naruto complained as he and Sakura walked up to them.

Garaa gave an amused smile, it was small, but enough for the blond to reciprocate it.

"I couldn't very well sick my Krokorok on him, that would be entirely unfair." Garaa mocked as Naruto chuckled. Sasuke stared at them unamused.

"And why not?" Sasuke grumbled, crossing his arms as Sakura rolled her own eyes, Sasuke knew he was being immature, but that didn't stop him from being insulted.

"Gym Leaders have to pick their teams based on the number of badges their challenger has. Since you had none at this time I had to adjust accordingly." Garaa explained.

"You've got more pokemon, Garaa? Stronger ones?" Naruto perked up with a grin. The red head nodded.

"Including the ones you've seen with me I also train a Larvitar, Pupitar, Trapinch, Vibrava, Excadrill, Hitmonlee, Claydol, and a Scraggy." He listed. "All of varying strengths to suite the challengers I face."

"Whoa, I didn't know Gym Leaders prepared for all that." Naruto whistled, impressed. Sasuke just huffed as cottonee came to bat his leafy appendages across his face. The dark haired trainer jutted out his lower lip as he swatted his pokemon away and returned it.

"So you got your first badge, where do you guys think you'll head to next?" Kankuro spoke up. Sasuke glanced towards Sakura, she seemed to be the one most up to date with league information. She looked up at him when she felt his eyes on her and furrowed her brow.

"Well…I know Earth Province has a gym in its capital city, Iwa." She tilted her head in thought, possibly trying to remember if that was right. Garaa nodded.

"I remember the one who runs the gym. She took it over shortly before I took over my duties. You'll be looking for a young woman called Kurostsuchi." He informed.

"I hope you aren't plannin' to leave anytime soon." Another voice joined the group from the entryway. Garaa and Kankuro twitched and looked towards the entrance to the hallway. A tall, solidly build teenager, probably closer to Kankuro in age was leaning against the wall. Dust covered her from head to toe and her hair, which was pulled up in an odd hair style was dirty beyond repair.

"Temari!" Kankuro gasped.

"Yo~" She raised her hand in a tired greeting.

"What are you doing here?" Garaa narrowed his eyes. "Where is your fearow?"

The blond teenager sighed.

"Shit happened, the troupe of rangers I was leading had to make an emergency retreat. The sandstorms have gotten stronger….Fearow got hurt, he's at the center right now."

Sharp eyes glanced over across Sasuke and the others.

"If you were thinking of heading out of Suna right now I wouldn't try. The strange sandstorms hitting the western ruins are getting stronger, bigger. The winds they kick up are making natural storms which might spread around the province. You don't want to get caught in one."

Sasuke crossed his arms, not too keen of staying in the desert province.

"Why should we take any advice from you?" he challenged. Then, the blond idiot at his side gasped. A finger pointed out to the young woman.

"You! I see you on the news like all the time! You're that Pokemon Ranger, Temari!"

The sharp eyed woman smirked, tilting her head up in appraisal.

"Oh? A fan, well hey there blondie." Temari grinned down at the wide eyed excited Naruto. And Sasuke groaned.

Once again his plans have been altered.


	20. Interlude: Roselia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, long time no see am I right? I know you all may be a bit disappointed this isn't a continuation of the last chapter, but what with my new crappy waitressing job and trying to find free time to work out another chunk of the story line I don't think I'll get to the next chapter for a bit.
> 
> In other news, if any of you guys are beta readers or really good at plot development or making story lines from beginning to end I'd really like some help in finishing the entire story board of sorts from what i have to the end so I will no longer have to scramble over long periods of time ironing out what events go where or what happens next. This is turning into one of the biggest projects I've thought up and I want to get it all down and organized. I'm looking both here and fanfiction.net for help.
> 
> But, until then, here's a little side story with the pokemon!

It was just after reaching Suna and the pokemon were waiting for their trainers to return to their room with food. All five pokemon were out and relaxing, chatting off and on now that there was no sun beating down on them. And amongst the chatter, Vulpix was humming in approval at the new form Budew took after evolving into Roselia.

Roselia, herself was looking down at the two full bloomed appendages, cheeks flush with darker green across her lighter green face. Her dark green body was slimmer, less bulky build. Her legs were longer, she could walk faster and she felt far more balanced that she was use to. It was nerve wracking and amazing all at once.

The red fox at her side seemed to approve as well.

" _You look good, as a Roselia, very pretty_." Vulpix assured the shy pokemon.

" _You really think so? It was such a flurry of activity when it happened; I never had the chance to look at myself._ " Even her voice felt different, a little more mature, still with its soft lilt.

" _Take my word for it; you look a lot less like a Spinda doing a teeter dance while walking now._ " Murkrow spoke up from his perch. The two female pokemon looked up at the crow, Roselia, however, swiftly looked at her feet at the Murkrows words.

" _Oh…_ " she mumbled. Vulpix huffed.

" _You have no idea how to treat a lady Murkrow, now look at what you've done._ " She huffed, all her tails twitching in aggravation at the quiet grass/poison type and how her slender shoulder dropped.

" _What? I thought that was a good thing? She can move faster now in fights right?_ " The dark bird pokemon squawked.

" _Don't worry Roselia, I think you look nice._ " Sakura's pink Shellos happily replied as it soaked in a pale of water the pink haired human provided her slug-like pokemon. Roselia smiled slightly.

" _Thank you Shellos._ "

" _Hey, Cottonee, what about you, you agree with me right?_ " Murkrow turned to the white grass type as it contented itself with sitting on the windowsill to soak up the sun's rays. The golden eyed fluff ball squinted his eyes and gave the dark bird an annoyed glare at its nap being interrupted before he silently turned to the poison point pokemon who looked up at him. Her rose blooms held up under her chin, awaiting the other grass type's opinion.

Cottonee's leaf appendages twitched, he fidgeted before huffing and turning to look outside the window.

" _I don't care, she doesn't look all that different. No need to make a fuss._ " He scoffed. Vulpix snorted as she leaned against the much less upset Roselia and snickered.

" _I think he just doesn't want to admit he likes this form._ " She whispered. The dual type blinked before laughing, pushing the fox lightly.

" _Don't be silly, Cottonee doesn't seem to care either way._ "

Up on his perch, Cottonee stared closely at the reflection of the evolved pokemon and couldn't help the little skip his heart made at the sound of her familiar giggle.


End file.
